| Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 13:11:52 -0800 | 04 00067 61 01013101 |
Mr. Cliff Joslyn
joslyn@lanl.gov
Computer Research Group (CIC-3)
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Distributed Knowledge Research Team; MS B265
Los Alamos, NM 87545
| Subject: | KM Solution Text and HTML |
Dear Cliff,
Responding to your letter today asking for suggestions on a medium to replace PDF for long and technical oriented documents, I do not use MS Word, and only suggested it because a lot of people use Word to prepare formal papers. Word is easy to convert to text, which works well with SDS for analysis, alignment, organization, summary and feedback, because SDS pops text into HTML for communicating efficiently with others.
Math symbols, tables and pictures do not convert well into text, but they are easy to explain in text for the purpose of review, analysis and planning that places information in the context of related events and sources.
A key "metric" of communication is traceability to original sources. PDF files cannot be linked to provide hard-wired connections that align daily work with guiding authority, like your paper. Without alignment, people very soon wander all over the place due to "meaning drift" that attributes authority with different, often opposite, representations from the original source. This risk far outweighs most concerns about confidentiality that make critical details a secret from the people doing the work, per POIMS.....
http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/01/02/00030.HTM#V8P1
Anyway, I really appreciate your indulgence asking why we want things done in a particular way, rather than just folding your tent.
I think you have a brilliant paper that can go a long way toward fostering a culture of knowledge to move KM ahead. Thanks for considering my comments.
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod
Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net