hide header
About Dynamic Knowledge Repositories 0Overview 1
Most people think of a repository as being a static archive of published documents. A dynamic knowledge repository is a living, breathing, rapidly evolving repository of all the stuff accumulating moment to moment throughout the life of a project or pursuit. This would include successive drafts and commentary leading up to more polished versions of a given document, brainstorming and conceptual design notes, design rationale, work lists, contact info, all the email and meeting notes, research intelligence collected and commented on, emerging issues, timelines, etc. In a software project, the DKR would also include all the successive versions of source code, bug reports, change requests, fixes, version release notes, documentation, etc. Aerospace friends tell us that the documentation it takes to design, build, fly and maintain a plane will more than fill the plane. 1a The key determining factor of any group's Collective IQ is how effectively it can develop, integrate, and apply all this iterating knowledge from the swirl of disparate concurrent contributions. Doug developed the shorthand CoDIAK for the concurrent development, integration, and application of knowledge to characterize the basic knowledge processes shown in the purple boxes at right. The DKR is the emerging collective record of all this activity captured on the fly -- the group brain, the emerging collective vision, know-how, group memory, where the dots are connected and the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. A DKR can also be a comprehensive knowledge base on a particular topic, for example everything that is known about malaria, or collaborative tools. A truly exemplary DKR as defined by Doug Engelbart would emerge and evolve from advanced group process and conventions supported by highly enabling tools designed to facilitiate the collective work in a way that optimizes the automatic capture, organization, and enhanced utility of the DKR, including one or more high performance knowledge specialists who are continuously monitoring the capture, tagging, indexing, and tracking of the emerging repository -- tools, practice, and people working together in a way that renders the DKR optimally navigable, searchable, and useful. The quality, depth and breadth of a DKR can make the difference between a high Collective IQ, and a low one, making this one of the more crucial capabilities on the planet (or at least wherever Collective IQ matters). 1b Further Inquiry2
|
||
