A small group of enthusiastic knowledge explorers were guided by Bill Hall on a presentation that covered his life’s journey through the philosophies of knowledge.  In particular, Bill focused o the differences in the nature of truth between Popper and Polanyi.  

Bill combined Popper’s 3 knowlege worlds, the OODA cycle (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) and the DIKIWP hierarchy (Data, Information, Knowledge, Intelligence, Wisdom, Power) into a sophisticated understanding of the approach to managing organisational knowledge.

There was intense interest in the group to debate some of the notions – not the least the ubiquitous and often criticised hierarchy. 

Thanks Bill for a most entertaining and thought-provoking night. 

His slides are attached – they contain a lot more information than was covered during the talk.  Feel free to add a comment on the event!

 

This month’s KMLF meeting will feature a presentation by Dr Bill Hall. Bill is a long time member of KMLF, Documentation & KM Systems Analyst at Tenix Defence, and Senior Fellow and the Australian Centre for Science, Innovation & Society, University of Melbourne

Bill’s talk is entitled: What’s this Stuff Called “Knowledge” and Where Do You Find It?

Blurb

Until I started networking with other KM professionals and researching the academic literature, I thought I knew the answer. After completing my PhD in evolutionary biology (Harvard 1973), I spent most of two years in the late 1970s studying epistemology and the history and philosophy of science to validate my scientific methodology. Then for the last ~25 years I have been working with organisational knowledge in a range of documentation and knowledge management roles—the last 17 of them with Tenix Defence. I sometimes express frustration over the difficulties we have sharing knowledge in the organisation, but it is worth noting that we have just completed the last of 10 ANZAC Frigates, on time and on budget in what has been to now the largest and most successful defence project in Australian history, making a good profit on a stringently fixed price established in 1989.

I didn’t even know there was a question about what knowledge is until I started writing a book about the co-evolution of human cognition and our cognitive tools. Researching for the book, I started surfing the Web and joined a KM forum. Whenever a newbie asked for a definition of knowledge or an explanation of the differences between knowledge and information, the discussion usually degenerated into a flame war. Offering my own ideas only added fuel to the flames. The situation was bad enough that in 2002 I worked to re-establish some university connections so I could access the research literature and have been studying the issue of what knowledge is since then. I think I have found a genuine scientific basis for resolving the disputes will help improve our focus on key issues in KM.

In the talk, I’ll fan the flames a bit by asking people to volunteer their answers to the questions in the title and then discuss some of the answers I  think I have found and how I think they can help us.

Details

Thursday 20th July, 6:00 – 7 :30 pm PLUS networking over wine & cheese before and afterwards

RMIT Business, Level 8, Room 13, 239 Bourke Street, Melbourne

As usual, we simply ask for a gold coin donation to cover refreshments and everyone is welcome.