I have been researching on learning and knowledge management for a while. Here are my perspectives on the knowledge and information.
I do look at knowledge to be very different from information. Knowledge addresses how to (know-how). Information addresses what, where, when and who. Russ Ackoff gives an example of information being movies being played in your town. Knowledge being the directions to the movie theatre. To give a bit more detail, information is structured, ordered data. It gives functionality to data. Data is like facts, observations and does not have any meaning by itself. Letters of the alphabet are data points. Words on a page are information. The instruction or design or recipe that is described by those words is knowledge. Knowledge has five main characteristics as I see it. It is subjective, has a collective component, has a tacit component, limited shelf life and it is a human interpretation. When knowledge creates meaning or understanding, it is beginning to connect with values and assumptions. Discriminating and discerning right knowledge from wrong knowledge is wisdom. Meaning and wisdom begin to answer 'why' questions whereas knowledge answers 'how' questions. Stories, metaphors and anologies are knowledge. When to share which story to whom is wisdom. Wisdom deals with spirit and is deeply connected with spirit. Knowledge may be about the spirit but might not connect with spirit. Knowledge could be a left over from a spiritual experience. Intelligence is dynamic and alive and connected with spirit whereas knowledge is frozen intellect and might be disconnected from spirit. We are dealing mostly with information in organizations. We manage information and search for information and get back information. Knowledge management involves people, involves tacit as well as explicit knowledge. It could involve awareness and at its best self-knowledge. There are very few people who really understand knowledge management. Finally, open space does create space for knowledge to evolve, flow, get created and shared meaningfully. When framed appropriately and managed meaningfully, open space could be very powerful knowledge management environment. Let me also say, most of the open spaces have become more rigid and formulaic. I have not seen a good opening in past three four years. Hope my reflections are useful. regards Prasad Kaipa Mithya Institute for Learning and Knowledge Architecture www.mithya.com