Dear Rosan,

(So nice to see you...can I offer you coffee or tea? We also have
some green tea I brought from Japan...)

In technocratic (e.g. academia bureaucrats, funding politicians)
circles knowledge is often understood as a product that can be
delivered in writing, as documented results, etc. Ideas like
'technology transfer' are also often (probably especially by those
not intimately involved in effective implementation) understood as
'filling the empty vessel with new useful stuff'; seeing the problem
more as 'how do we 1) get those with the knowledge to encode their
knowledge so that the others can decode it, and 2) get them to
mingle'.

'From knowledge to designs'? but isn't design a way how knowledge
develops and is transformed? so can you say that only one transforms
the other? isn't it always so that knowledge enables you to design
and design evolves the knowledge, and both end up influencing,
transforming, each other?

I think that 'application' and 'transfer' come from the idea that we
have clear categories. 'This here' is knowledge and 'that there' is
something else. 'Unless that vessel has stuff that has these
qualifications, characteristics and certificates, it cannot be
knowledge'.

As soon as one looks at that through the ideas that Maturana and
Varela and Freire, for example, advocate, one must drop that kind of
an idea of knowledge. I interpret their ideas to imply this problem:
'How could I define what would be the correct criteria for
determining whether something is knowledge for someone else?' I think
that these common definitions (of what is and what isn't knowledge,
for example) are essentially artifacts of our systems, based on the
need to classify people and projects for funding etc., as opposed to
truly meaningful philosophical fundamentals. All categories are, in
the end, fuzzy at their boundaries (see prototype theory: Rosch,
Lakoff.)

So can you move knowledge or is it always transformation? probably
depends on your idea of 'knowledge' more than your idea of the
relationship between 'movement, and 'change'.

(I recommend again the book about knowledge by Ilkka Tuomi. Get it!
see info at the end of message...)

kh

....

At 11:29 -0700 5.11.2002, Rosan Chow wrote:
>What I think I can say a little bit more is the potential usefulness of this
>distinction between 'change' and 'movement' for articulating designing. And
>this is where I also like to hear your ideas.
>
>In the course of study, i have come across terms such as 'knowledge
>application', 'knowledge transfer'... and i am not sure if these terms aptly
>describe the process of 'from knowledge to designs'.
>
>My hunch is that the terms 'transfer' and 'application' imply a movement. I
>think 'from knowledge to designs' is a transformation, a change that is much
>less straightforward, less deductive, less matter-of-factly, less certain, and
>less predictable than what 'transfer' and 'application' imply.
>
>I think the distinction between 'change' and 'movement' can be useful in
>putting the discussion of teaching, learning and using scientific methods or
>scientific data (either quantative or qualitative interpreted under any
>paradigm of inquiry) in design in perspective.

At 08:43 -0700 31.10.2002, Rosan Chow wrote:
>i was having cereal one morning and a thought came to me and it was
>"a change involves and implies transformation. from knowledge to designs
>is a change rather than movement".


At 10:58 +0300 8.5.2002, Kari-Hans Kommonen wrote:
>I once more recommend a great book: "Corporate Knowledge - Theory
>and Practice of Intelligent Organizations" by Ilkka Tuomi. While the
>whole book discusses knowledge management in organizations, as one
>important building block in his argumentation he describes his idea
>of knowledge, based on Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, Maturana and Varela,
>Bateson, Polanyi, William James, Dewey, Luhmann, and Vygotsky. (The
>book may be hard to find; in the end of my message you can find the
>necessary info for a finnish bookstore that can ship you a copy.)
>
>His contribution is especially valuable because he has been deeply
>involved in the practical serious attempts to systematically manage
>knowledge (at Nokia). I think that while his thesis is for the Dept
>of Education, he has gained a lot of the insight and knowledge by
>being involved in the design of practical applications. Whether he
>has been guided in his investigations mainly by the thinkers he
>cites or by his experiences, he does not elaborate, but at least his
>conclusions seem to point in the direction that the practical
>involvement is in general crucial for knowledge construction,
>transfer and management.
>
>He seems to say that from an organization's point of view,
>meaningful knowledge lives in communities of practice as opposed to
>the documents and reports of the organizational units. I am not sure
>whether the university is any different. Although the documents etc.
>are its crucial products, they are not knowledge - they are carriers
>of information, information that can become knowledge, if the
>contents of the documents are taken up by some people in a
>meaningful, maybe useful, way.
>
>
>cheers, kh
>
>
>
>Ilkka Tuomi's book:
>--------------------
>>>The book should be available in the Akateeminen (the Academic
>>>Bookstore), I did a search and found it at 320 FIM, around USD 50.
>>>Their info in english tells you how to contact them and place
>>>orders, they are happy to ship it anywhere in the world:
>>>
>>>http://www.akateeminen.com/vienti/export_eng.htm
>>>
>>>here is the info their web page gave me of the book:
>>>
>>>>CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE.THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INTELLIGENT ORGANIZATIONS
>>>>
>>>>TUOMI I (VÄIT)
>>>>
>>>>"During the time this book has been in prerparation, management
>>>>of corporate knowledge has become one of the hot topics in
>>>>several areas of organizational studies, information systems,
>>>>human resource development, and strategy. My guess has been that
>>>>much of this hype goes away after we begin to have a reasonably
>>>>sophisticated understanding of the domain of knowledge
>>>>management. I think we have to go further in two areas,
>>>>simultaneously: develop theory that lies on a reasonably robust
>>>>foundation, and develop practices that can have real impact on
>>>>real organizations. I will address both these issues."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>ISBN: 951-98280-0-1
>>>>Hinta: 320,00 mk / 53,82
>>>>
>>>>Ilmestymisaika: 1999
>>>>Kustantaja: METAXIS
>>>>Painos:
>>>>Sivumäärä: 453
>>>>Sidosasu: NID