To continue where I left of in the last post:
1.5 Libre Knowledge
Literally: free knowledge. A take on those words could be to liberate knowledge from the shackles that we cast on it such as the tedious processes of being able to publish a particular piece of research (also known as discovered, revised, re-visited or re-introduced to modern society knowledge). Or just to be able to share knowledge along with information as freely as information, data and knowledge are shared on the internet. Of course I do not agree with lack of structure; however I am a proponent of a large amount of freedom for knowledge and information. True that a researcher in some corner of the world spent half his life digging up some piece of knowledge from the depths of past and present research, but once its been figured out, it eventually becomes common knowledge. The perspective that I hold firmly is that rather than letting that piece of knowledge rot in some dark abyss to reach which exorbitant amounts of money are required, float the said knowledge thereby exponentially increasing the pace of research in the relatively next round.
Going a little off topic here but quite necessarily. I would like to mention that research should not be viewed as a money-making tool. For money-making we should exploit the innovation and design sector which are both interdependent on each other as well as on research quite heavily. Research is and should be viewed a black-hole for investment from which the reward will be innovation and design in one field or another. In turn leading to production of unique products that when sold at appropriate prices will generate enormous returns. This system then should not be denied its most basic and intrinsic nature: LIBERATION OF KNOWLEDGE.
1.6 Meta Knowledge
This is an interesting topic, because with the internet now declared as a basic human right and increasing access to it even in developing nations, knowledge (meaning how, where and what to do to obtain knowledge) about knowledge is becoming increasingly widespread. Then we cast knowledge into the irons of structure such as categories such as the Dewey decimal system. Also to make it easier to sort through the knowledge all the articles, notes, passages, papers, etc are tagged with keywords. In this day and age it is not difficult to 'google' key words with enough refinement that one can find anything quite reliably and extremely swiftly. Therefore knowledge about knowledge is not the problem. In fact meta-knowledge can be said to be trying to liberate knowledge from the chains we have put it in. That at least is the way things seem to me in the current environment.
1.7 Procedural Knowledge
This is a different form of knowledge as compared to those opined up on previously. Procedural knowledge is quite specific in its nature and applies to, for lack of example, a particular task. A task can be relatively simple such as lifting a pen from the table top or it can be more complex and mad up of sub tasks further broken down into smaller jobs. Of course because not all things are standardised (such as spelling) so there are often multiple ways of completing the same task. The exact route taken depends on the person (and/or employer and /or region and/or culture/tradition/history). Therefore in the modern world there is a lot of deliberate hype about procedural knowledge (often labelled trade secrets). I understand that a particular way of doing something and carrying out a task is the key to delivering a particular quality of end product hence such high impact knowledge need not necessarily be liberated into the population at large. The only condition is that considering such knowledge as property and with-holding it from the global community should not become a barrier to development at any point. If this happens, then said knowledge should be immediately released to the public at large. As within the so called 'blind' consumers lie the dormant geniuses (genii) of tomorrow just waiting for a puzzle piece of knowledge to be released so they can present you with a solved Rubik's cube in the 7th dimention.
1.8 Self-knowledge
I really should not need to explain this to anyone. Particularly as trying to describe something so intrinsic is in itself an example of Tacit Knowledge which coincidentally is the next little section.
1.9 Tacit Knowledge
Let me begin with explicit knowledge which is knowledge that can easily be transmitted from one person to another verbally and or visually (by writing and demonstrating). Tacit knowledge is that vague little abstract bit of knowledge that can not be transmitted from one person to another. It can only be invoked. As tacit knowledge relies on an individuals inherent capability of 'making the connection' or 'connecting the dots' as it were. Language and learning a new language are examples of this kind of knowledge. While learning a new language the explicit knowledge is shared with the learner but the fluency does not arrive till the learner has immersed themselves in that particular language and its culture to understand the abstract rules of it. Like riding a bike. One can be shown how to do it and what not to do, but it only comes after grasping that intangible trick and making the connection after personal experience based on personal experimentation.
And finally:
Management of Knowledge:
1. Knowledge Acquisition:
Knowledge can only be acquired through research and experimentation. Of course there is the route of revelation but that tends to mean one is a prophet of some sort. (For obvious reasons I shall not discuss theology)
2. Knowledge Storage:
We do this everyday. We just need to do it in such a manner that the storage is structured but available to all regardless of anything. This would then be called transparency (which happens to be politically correct besides being ethically and morally correct as it would lead to minimisation of corruption, lies and deceit. Unless someone just starts a massive hoax of building massive amounts of false knowledge thereby defeating the entire purpose of development and advancement.)
Last but not least there should be LIBRARIES everywhere and they should be of any media: paper or digital or both.
3. Knowledge Retrieval
Based upon storage, knowledge should be free to be recalled at any time or place. (well almost, after all we do not want design data leaked before putting a product into commercial production or else a rival will do it before us but not of the same quality. So I guess a small amount of restriction is necessary however not as much as has been imposed upon knowledge today.)
