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KMLF Event: July 2006: Bill Hall – What's this stuff called Knowledge? »

Dr Bill Hall to present 20th July

9 July, 2006 by Keith De La Rue

Bill_HallThis 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.

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Posted in Events | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on 13 July, 2006 at 10:03 am Richard Vines

    What a great thing to be doing Bill and SHawn. Fueling the fires of debate about these very important issues.


  2. on 21 July, 2006 at 1:46 pm Warren Crosbie

    After Bill’s thought provoking presentation last night, I left wondering if the subjectivists had given Dr Hall sufficient chance to present his scientifically grounded model? Did we shout him down when we should have listened?
    Bill presented many models and several world views of KM, yet the question remains: should we choose the best models, or the best models that our stakeholders can understand?
    And what is the value of technical models of knowledge-sharing to those whose experience organisational politics as the biggest challenge.
    Finally, will we revisit the battle between subjectivists and positivists, or should we set up a debate with the aim of generating thesis, antithesis, and synthesis between 6 and 7:30pm? Or do we need more case studies, stories, and anecdotes?



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