The nature of knowledge (again)

Without an understanding of knowledge, most of what we do in KM becomes rather pointless.

Now I know many grow tired of this endless circle without a definitive answer, but it is key that we keep the dialog open, listen with care, approach the beast from yet another angle and revisit our own bias, beliefs, judgements and conclusions.

Recent dialog at Act-km has me (re)thinking my own models and collecting the questions we all need to ask ourselves and others in this area. Excellent commentary from Bill Hall, Joe Firestone, John Maloney and Dave Snowden........

So what exactly is the nature of this beast? Here are some things to think about:

Knowledge about knowledge

If you have any questions or thoughts please share.

Comments

[David Locke]

All three of these notions about knowledge are wrong. A thing is the repository of the knowledge that went into making it. Knowledge is EXPLICATED through social interaction, but not created by those interactions. And, it is totally geek to say that knowledge must be shared, yes, but only amoung say ten to twenty people, otherwise it loses its financial value. Wealthy people share info amoung their in crowd. If the public knew, then the deal wouldn't be worth squat.

Knowledge has nothing to do with "to know." Oh, yeah, you know you have knowledge when you know it, but knowledge exists seperately from man.

The Theory of Relativity described a situation. That situation existed before the theory. And, we still don't know what the theory tells us in the real.

But don't listen to me. Listen to the people trying to sell knowledge management. Then, wonder why it hasn't sold.

[opatola mustapha olayiwola]

on role and nature of sociological theory;theoretical formulations as typologies;theories as models;and theories as axioms.

[opatola mustapha olayiwola]

reason and experience are very important in having knowledge.

[tyelmene]

knowledge is defined by: "to know"

to know is to to possess a "design of meaning"- an accumulated store of concepts and the relationships those concepts hold to one another.

1. all knowledge is held by a knower...

the means to come by ones design of meaning is to be exposed to/interact with the world.

2. all knowledge is created by/through social interaction.

and, 3. all knowledge is useful only to the degree it is shared.