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A Rose By Any Other Name


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Posted by Martyn R Jones on July 17, 1999 at 21:21:50:

In Reply to: Why not just call it by its real name ??? posted by P. Richard Hansen on July 17, 1999 at 16:03:57:

Hello Richard,

It’s only a thought but would you consider the proposition that when you wrote your contribution to this forum that you were taking your knowledge from your own head and putting it (not literally of course) onto a piece of paper? On the other hand if one were to say that knowledge cannot be written down on paper then this would be a major re-classification of what probably would have been considered to be major knowledge contributions – e.g. Adam Smith, Marx or JM Keynes on Economics, Carlyle on History, Freud on Psychology, Sun Tzu on the Art of War, Dale Carnegie on How To Win Friends and Influence People, Shakespeare, Machiavelli etc. and any number of great written works from all parts of the world – not to say that wisdom and knowledge is solely transmitted via the written word, the spoken word has contributed famously to the advancement of knowledge in quite a few societies.

I would also tend to agree with the argument that there are still problems, obstacles and limitations associated with our current knowledge of knowledge elicitation, knowledge representation and knowledge re-use. However, over the last twenty years we have seen enormous advances made in our understanding of knowledge management in general and associated subjects, such as knowledge elicitation, in particular.

Whatever we personally like to call those subjects, areas, diverse opinions which is also commonly placed under the “knowledge management” umbrella is debatable, however, Knowledge Management, in the contemporary sense of the term, is relatively new, and it helps those who are dealing with the concepts and practicalities to have points of reference (labels etc.), even if we have different opinions, strategies and drivers. If we were to place Knowledge Management under the Business Intelligence subject area we would potentially cause even greater confusion amongst those who might view BI as more associated with possibly a subset of Knowledge Management or an area of Information Management or a superset of Data Warehousing etc. whilst at the same time, doing something of an injustice to the field of Knowledge Management.

On the subject of the superficiality of dialogues and forums, I think you have to take it in the context that forums that have a longer history do take on a life of their own, quite often as virtual communities etc., and that in those virtual communities there is a tendency for some communications to be short/brief, succinct and/or cryptic. This, I believe, sometimes happens when assumptions are made about background knowledge, communities of practice, fields of interest and past knowledge/information interchanges, assumptions that are created over time.

So although the impression given may find an echo in what you wrote regarding KM and shopping you may also find that this impression is superficial and that if you scratch the surface you may encounter something a little more substantial.

Best regards,

Martyn R Jones


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