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The Physics of Knowledge Management by Kevin B. Johnson, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1999 PharmaKnowledge All Rights Reserved Just as the physical world of billiard balls, French fries and PalmPilots has fundamental particles or building blocks of matter, a fundamental ‘particle’ of knowledge can be defined. I suggest that, in analogy to the subatomic particles of the physical world like electrons and neutrons, we call this fundamental ‘particle’ a “knowtron” (don’t bother looking; the URL www.knowtron.com is already locked up). For now, let’s not worry about the sub-subatomic particles like quarks and other weird stuff like “Is a knowtron a wave or particle?” (That’s coming in the next article). Here we’ll concentrate of the physics of the macroscopic (big enough to see, even with thick glasses) world. Knowtrons can exist in many forms. The only requirement is that they are capable of conveying information or knowledge from one person to another. Knowtrons can range from a facial expression (that says “You are SO disgusting”) to a word (“politician”), phrase (“a thousand points of light”), process diagram, photograph (John Kennedy Jr. saluting his father as a young boy), white paper, newspaper article, musical recording, and the list goes on and on. Knowtrons have various properties; one of the most important being universality or specificity. For example, maxims like “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” are examples of universal, general knowtrons. While trite and hackneyed, these short phrases can pack a powerful knowledge punch. Generally, they are parsimonious, visual in nature, narrative in form, and can be universally applied to many different situations. Such maxims are examples of general knowtrons that can be applied to a variety of situations and environments. At the other end of the spectrum are specific knowtrons such as “To save a file in Word 2000, select File, then Save in the menu bar and pray” that are very specific for a given situation, environment or setting. As you will see shortly, specificity or universality is one of the properties of knowledge that defines its value. With the stage thus set and with apologies to Isaac Newton, several hundred years of physics thought and reason, and anyone else I have unwittingly or subconsciously stolen ideas from, I present my rendition of the Fundamental Laws of Knowledge Dynamics: First Law of Knowledge Dynamics (Utility of Knowledge is Dependent on Action and Transfer): Based on Newton’s First Law of Motion (A body at rest remains at rest and a body in motion remains in motion unless a force is applied to it). A knowtron at rest remains at rest and without value until used for action. A knowtron remains in motion and has value only as long as it is actively transferred from one person to another. Thus, knowledge sitting in someone’s head or on a computer system somewhere remains there (and thus has potential but limited utility to the system) until it is used to produce some tangible action, while knowledge being actively transferred from person to person becomes increasingly useful with each transfer (see the Third Law below). Second Law of Knowledge Dynamics (Knowledge Value is Dependent on Situation, Specificity and Transferability of the Knowledge or The Value of Knowledge is Largely Unknown and Constantly Changing): Based on Newton’s Second Law of Motion (force on a body arises from its mass times its acceleration, or F=ma). The organizational usefulness or value of a knowtron arises from its state-dependent utility (how useful is this knowledge in a particular situation), its specificity (how can it be applied to this situation in addition to many other different situations), and its transferability (how quickly and completely can it be transferred from one person or form into another). Thus, the value of a particular knowtron constantly changes (sometimes dramatically) based on the current situation, how general or specific the knowtron is, and how it is transferred (and thus morphed into a new knowtron (a neoknowtron?); see the Third Law below). Third Law of Knowledge Dynamics (Transfer of Knowledge Always Creates New or Different Knowledge): From Newton’s Third Law of Motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). For every transfer of a knowtron there is a change in the knowtron that is irreversible. The knowtron is changed based on the new states and situations of the environment as well as prior knowledge, experience, and expertise of the knowledge receiver. Fourth Law of Knowledge Dynamics (The Knowledge of a System is Infinite as Long as Knowledge Continues to be Transferred): Based on Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics (the entropy, or the measure of disorder or randomness in matter and energy, of an isolated system always increase with time). The Knowledge (with a capital K; the compendium of all knowtrons, both explicit and tacit) of a system (person, group, organization, nation, world, universe) always increases over time IF AND ONLY IF knowtrons are actively transferred from one person to another within or between systems. What does this mean to organizations trying to keep up with their competition via innovation, adaptation, and process improvement? I submit the following knowtrons based on the above fundamental laws:
What do you think? Interesting? Scary? Full of crap? Let me know and we can noodle on it for awhile. |
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