Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on January 09, 1998 at 09:09:38:

In Reply to: Re: Knowledge Ecology: How Tacit Becomes Explicit posted by Tom Sudman on January 08, 1998 at 20:00:17:

Tom,

Let me attempt to elaborate on the last statement: specifically, how same tacit knowledge may present different 'expressions' of explicit knowledge depending upon the context and the medium via which it is made explicit.

Any attempt to make the 'tacit' knowledge 'explicit' or elicit what is tacit would be circumscribed by some context. Assuming that the key object is to communicate or to [attempt to] develop shared meaning, the same tacit knowledge could be expressed in different ways: via spoken words, written words, schematics, etc. For instance, Don's reference to Mona Lisa's smile seems to provide a 'common reference' from which we can attempt to understand what he 'means.' At some other point in the discussion, if the same issue arises, he may refer to some other 'prop' that he thinks is relevant within that context.

The key issue, as Don has underscored, is that the processes of [individual and social] knowledge construction are processes that involve not only cognition, but also affect (feeling) and most importantly [real or vicarious] action.

One example that comes to mind about 'tacit' knowledge being made 'explicit' is the performance of [say] Beethoven's fifth symphony by different artists using different musical instruments. The effect of most of these performances [on an audience member] will be different depending upon the facility of the artists with the instruments, their own 'sense' of the score of the symphony, the specific performance that occurs during that instance, as well as the facility and appreciation of the listener.

The process of conversion of 'tacit' into 'explicit' may be considered as a process of making sense of [or giving structure to] the unstructured 'messes' that reside in one's mind as assumptions, feelings, ideas, biases, thumb rules, memories, etc. What emerges as 'explicit' from the process of sense making is both facilitated and constrained by the context and the medium within which it is translated.

- Yogesh

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Knowledge Ecology: How Tacit Becomes Explicit Tom Sudman 14:47:18 1/09/98 (2)
  • Re: Knowledge Ecology: How Tacit Becomes Explicit Ross Hall 14:36:08 1/15/98 (1)
    • tacit and explicit knowledge and a story of Zen Yongjian Bao 16:51:52 1/15/98 (0)

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