Steve Barth | Reflexions

Digitizing or Indigenizing Knowledge?

Comparing "traditional knowledge" (as in indigenous communities) to "traditional science" (as in scientific method) offers a useful metaphor—and perhaps a better model—for the problem of constructing KM solutions, which are typically approached as an extension of "scientific management" even though organizational interventions respond better to anthropological approaches rather than technological ones.

Knowledge in the Wild

The International Council for Science defines traditional knowledge as the accumulated learning, skills, and practices maintained by communities with long experience in their environments. That knowledge informs day-to-day decisions and long-term worldviews on practical and fundamental aspects of a group's practices.

"Traditional knowledge" suggests (wrongly) that this knowledge is rooted in the past without necessarily renewing itself, which it does. "Indigenous knowledge" is a better term, emphasizing the situation of knowledge: its inextricable link to place and context. This situated knowledge is almost always framed by social responsibility and long-term sustainability. Nevertheless, it tends to sound like "common sense" (which it is, literally) about practical advice and everyday reality, albeit based on a long view stretching back generations, centuries or longer. It also balances collective and individual stewardship for the knowledge that is vital if the group is to survive and thrive.

Caldey Gets Broadband

 

The Cistercian Brothers of Caldey Abbey upgraded last summer to 30mps broadband beamed over from the mainland. The first monastics settled on the Welsh island in the 6th century. But lately, Caldey's online perfume business has outgrown dialup. According to the lamentations of the Abbot, Father Daniel, "Patience is one of the characteristics of monastic life, but even the patience of the Brothers was being tested by our slow Internet." (If you ask me, they were an ideal candidate for cloud computing.)

I visited the monastery on a wintry Christmas weekend when I was a travel writer during the 1980s and published a sketch in Islands magazine …

Paradise is a concept invariably associated with islands. Caldey has no barrier reef, no blue lagoon or swaying palms. But there are many different kinds of islands. And many different kinds of paradise.

PS-Probably just a coincidence, but someone nicknamed "Caldey Abbey" is tagging a lot of music on Amazon.com: symphonic metal (114), melodic metal (68), progressive metal (52), power metal (29), death metal (22), gothic metal (21), epic metal (19), black metal (16), opera metal (11), neoclassical metal (10), folk metal (9), doom metal (3), fantasy metal (2)…

Organisms, Organizations and Systems

We are each organisms inside of organizations, simultaneously independent agents and components of larger systems. We co-evolve reacting to each other and together are incremental creators—and creations—of the system.

Sensing our environment is information. Reacting to our environment is learning. Repeating the reaction is called knowledge. Knowledge is more efficient than learning. However, adapting to changes in the environment requires learning.

The simplest organism capable of responding to its environment makes that environment a complex adaptive system. The only difference for humans is an awareness of systems and selves. All organisms operate in systems where many factors are beyond their control. All systems are parts of larger systems, subject to conditions beyond their control.

 

Unfilling the Cup

Learning is harder than knowing. It requires effort both to grasp and to release previously held beliefs…

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki (Tuttle)