THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 20:38:33 -0800
04 00067 61 00111501
OHS DKR Project
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
..
Subject:
Listening to Doug
KM Requires Links to Sources
Jack,
Responding to your question today,
"you"
in Eric's letter may have refered
to Adam, who wrote a letter earlier today rhetorically asking "....Shouldn't
the repository be called a DKR and not an OHS? Things will get too confusing
with respect to Doug's existing documents if OHS starts to mean a repository
instead of a tool set."
.. Adam proposes avoiding confusion by focusing on Doug's documents. At
issue is the meaning of a "repository," of "knowledge," and the meaning of
"dynamic," and how the meaning relates to a system of documents that are
linked, called "hyper documents."
The meaning and scope of
DKR
was discussed on January 20, 2000, and you
explained on April 26, 2000 that
architecture is the business
process that defines DKR, which was still
pending at that time.
.. More recently, On October 17, 2000
Eugene
advised that the new core team will
set the architecture.
.. So, in effect, we still
have not settled these issues,
as reported
previously on June 15, 2000 during a meeting at SRI.
.. Yet, even though DKR is not established, it seems clear that
knowledge
is a key part of a DKR that needs attention, as Eric noted on May 3, 2000.
..
One aspect of "knowledge" is aligning information with context, per
your letter
to Paul Fernhout on October 25, 2000.
..
Context
positions information in relation to
history, also, called "chronology," because sequence imparts cause and effect.
Understanding causation is useful for computer programming, building a bridge,
baking a cake, lots of things. Context, also, positions information in
relation to objectives, requirements and commitments.
.. It is not enough to call
for "context." We have to produce it. We have to take action. So, in my
view, here is a big secret of Knowledge Management:
it is all about action.
.. For example, on 000424 Adam proposed
listening to Doug,
and, you concurred. That sets a standard, or requirement, for the DKR
team to do business by looking to see what Doug says, and has said.
..
So, how do we do that?
.. On October 27, 2000 Doug requested that
comments be linked
to relevant parts of original sources. That is an important request, because
cross posting, which you called out, as well, in a letter on October 19, shows
alignment with objectives, requirements, commitments, and history....
..
That sounds like a good way to "listen."
.. "Listening" is one of those happy words that we all toss around, when
frustrated that other folks are not following our common sense view of things.
.. However, "listening," when applied in the manner Doug requests, has a
deeper meaning. It will lead the team to an OHS and a DKR, based on a working
understanding of "knowledge," "intelligence," and other issues that are
foundational to Knowledge Management, as discussed by
Mary Keeler
at SRI on May 18, 2000,
and, also, set out in Charles Peirce's
semiotics,
reviewed on May 15.
.. So, we have Chuck, Mary and Doug all pointing the way.
..
On the merits of Eric's question about the correlation of a DKR and OHS. Doug's
Launch Plan on October 25, 2000 sets out a weak correlation. Adam seems
correct that
OHS sounds like a set of tools
primarily to link, translate and
manipulate "views." DKR is the stuff that is linked, translated and
manipulated....
.. Note, that Doug discusses support by
skilled operatives to support the DKR capability,
which is a
Communication Metrics approach.
.. As noted, Doug requested comments on the OHS Launch Plan; but, so far
this work has not been done, because attention is on DTD's Java, Python, XML,
Topic Maps and other methods, rather than figuring out what these important
methods need to accomplish.
.. As set out in the letter to Henry, copied to the team,
on November 9, 2000,
experience over the past 15 years, particularly the past 10 months, and more
broadly over Doug's 40 years working on this matter, indicates that Knowledge
Management is a secret which can only discovered by doing Knowledge
Manageent... to transition from an information to a
culture of knowledge. .. Let's listen to Doug.