Posted by Mezei on September 28, 2002 at 13:27:11:

In Reply to: Re: definition of knowledge with respect to the KM posted by Reilly Atkinson on September 27, 2002 at 14:58:59:

Hi Reilly,
This morning, I gave the knowledge/info/data question yet another quick review, and presto, the answer (which was hiding all along in my unified theory).

Here's the jist of it:
There are two perspectives we are always viewing knowledge from. The perspective of the individual, and the perspective of the group.

That's where everything gets confusing. Because its difficult to translate information and data on a personal level. We don't 'think' about data, or information. Our minds basically work on the conscious/subconscious levels.

Anyway, here's the answer. On an individual level, knowledge is processed as explicit/tacit. But on a group level, knowledge is processed
as information/data.

So information is explicit, and data is tacit.

I knew the answer had to be simple.

This basically solves every problem I've run into thinking about this stuff. There's been this huge gap in all the K/I/D theory, the individiual group dynamic, and on and on and on.

So in a sense, IT professionals are knowledge managers, but only on the group level.

Now the real kicker is combining the two perspectives, explaining how an individual's knowledge migrates into group knowledge. Fortunately I've already got that worked out in the unified paper. It's always odd to me that answers are created before problems are identified, but it happens a lot. I guess that's the beauty of theory.

Don

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