A blast from the past - a talk I gave at Documation 1999 entitled "Managing Knowledge in the Fractal Enterprise". Interestingly, the themes touched on in this presentation have proved resilient and useful in all the years since. If anything, the ideas seem closer to the mark today than they did 20 years ago!

1. November 17, 1999
Documation, Toronto, Canada
Managing Knowledge
in the
Fractal Enterprise
www.gollner.ca

2. “If it isn’t on the Web
- it doesn’t exist”
Tim Berners-Lee
Weaving the Web
(1999)

3. Memex
1940 1960 1980 2000

4. Knowledge Management
The Question
 The latter 20th Century will be noted for:
 unprecedented pace of research and innovation
 technology growth driven by the Cold War
 Knowledge is Power (Scientia est Potentia)
 As creating, managing and applying knowledge has
become more vital, so has it become more difficult to
accomplish
 Knowledge Management
 “A buzzword with a message”

5. What is Knowledge
A Practical Definition
 Knowledge is a public artifact
 Knowledge is different than ideas, experience,
habits, and opinions
 Knowledge has been “published” and is available for
testing and criticism
 Knowledge is part of a professional discourse
 Knowledge evolves through “natural selection”
 The Knowledge Value-Chain connects:
• Data
• Information
• Knowledge

6. Data
 Data is a collection of discrete factual records
 A Unit of Data, a Datum, is devoid of meaning
beyond the virtue of having been:
 selected
 retained
 managed

7. Information
 Information is a meaningful organization of
data
 Information is meaningful because it has been
organized and communicated within a specific
context and with a specific purpose (intention)
 In information, data is organized so as to influence
or direct (inform) the actions of an intended
recipient

8. Knowledge
 Knowledge is a meaningful organization of
information
 Knowledge is therefore a form of communication
 Unlike information, the usefulness of a piece of
knowledge is not limited to a specific context
 Communicating knowledge entails conveying an
understanding that allows the recipient to apply the
intention and organizing principles behind the
information to a broad range of contexts

9. Knowledge in Action
An Example
Task
Instruction
Examples
Feedback
Theory
Information
Knowledge
Author
Commentary
Information Action Knowledge Understanding

10. Knowledge Management
Building a Working Definition
 What do we manage when we manage
knowledge?
 Physical Information Messages and their:
• Connection to Events (Context)
• Connection to Author and Audience
• Connection to Organization and Process
• Relationships to other Information Messages
• Training modules, examples, background principles
• Commentary (feedback)
• Classifications, interpretations, criticisms
• Implementation Feedback

11. Knowledge Management
Building a Working Definition
 What does managing Knowledge mean?
 A Physical Dimension
• Creating and Managing a Matrix of Information
Messages (a web of connections) that forms the
Knowledge Assets of an organization
• Managing the ongoing availability and accessibility
of Knowledge Assets
 A Behavioural Dimension
• Designing and Managing a process for creating,
sharing, retaining, evolving and applying knowledge

12. Control Systems
Applying Knowledge
1940 1960 1980 2000

13. Automation
Investments in Knowledge Application
 Automated Systems
 implement process knowledge to reduce workload
• initial instructions
• feedback responses
• exception handling
 focus on limited problem domains
 have relied on controlled environments
 have demanded continuous optimization
 Organizations exhibit a “rage to automate”
 symptom of the volume of knowledge being applied

14. Internet
Connecting Organizations
1940 1960 1980 2000

15. The Distributed Enterprise
The walls come tumbling down
 The Notion of an Enterprise
 Not the same as an Organization
• Single entity from an ownership perspective
 Enterprise
 “A bold or imaginative undertaking” (OED)
 Any collection of organizational components
assembled to undertake a common endeavour
 An Enterprise is always distributed
 Sharing Knowledge is the defining feature

16. The Distributed Enterprise
The Challenge
 Sharing Knowledge across boundaries
 easier said than done
 a myriad of barriers including political, legal & cultural
 Two technical barriers:
 Knowledge Assets cannot move between enterprise
components due to:
• Proprietary formats prevent data exchange
• Automated Systems were never designed to share
information with other systems
(proprietary by nature)

17. Proprietary Formats
Limit the interchangeability of all data types

18. CALS
US DOD tackles the problem head-on (1985)
1940 1960 1980 2000
GOAL
Supplier and Client
STDS
INTERIM SOLUTION
Supplier ClientSupplier
PROBLEM
Client

19. SGML
Standard Generalized Markup Language
1940 1960 1980 2000

20. SGML
The First Experience in Knowledge Interchange
 SGML
 Provided phenomenal power for describing,
exchanging and processing knowledge
• Syntax of SGML reflected human communication
• Absolute flexibility allowed infinite adaptations
• Computationally difficult to implement
 Adopted in the Military and Aerospace domains
• where money was not the main consideration
 Not leveraged to address non-textual information
 EDI, Graphics, Product Data, Business Forms

21. SGML
Key Innovation
 The Key Innovation of SGML:
• Naming Something (understanding it) is different
than describing what should be done with it (defining
its behaviour)
• Naming Something is the important part
 SGML gives us the ability to:
• abstract Knowledge from Behaviour
• manage an organization’s knowledge assets and
thereby determine how it will behave (its potential)

22. World Wide Web
Where there’s a Will there’s a Way
1940 1960 1980 2000

23. World Wide Web
Opening the door to even the smallest player
 Original Objective (1989)
 “to allow information sharing within internationally
dispersed teams”
 The Web proved several things:
 Simplicity will always succeed (HTML)
 Universal goals could be met by a simple application
of a complex standard (SGML)
 The Web changed the business landscape
 Now any organization could play in the “Enterprise”

24. World Wide Web
Key Innovation
 The Key Innovation of the Web:
• Deciding what to do (intention) is different than
determining how it should be done (execution)
• Deciding what to do is the important part
 The Web gives us the ability to:
• abstract Intention from Execution
• form and evolve the intention (objective) behind an
enterprise separately from how it will be executed
technically and organizationally

25. XML
Answers the Question of Knowledge Sharing
1940 1960 1980 2000

26. XML offers Simplicity
A Double Edged Sword
 XML offers Simplicity
• An Application Profile constraining the use of SGML
• Promises Broader application support
• Potential for ubiquitous browser support
 Simplicity leads to Adoption
• Potential for Knowledge Sharing becomes a reality
 Wide-scale Adoption leads to Complexity
• Previously isolated systems become connected
• All Knowledge Assets can be exchanged between
systems and organizations

27. XML
The Potential
 XML can be used to:
 Encode and manage the Matrix of Information
Messages that make up Knowledge Assets
 Encode all forms of information:
• Graphics (e.g. Scalable Vector Graphics)
• Multimedia (e.g. Synchronized Multimedia
Integration Language)
• Product Data (e.g. it will re-implement STEP)
• EDI / Forms
 Exchange knowledge assets in their full form across all
manner of boundary

28. XML
Key Innovation
 The Key Innovation of XML:
• Fusing the innovations of SGML and the Web
• Naming Something (understanding it) is different than
describing what should be done with it (defining its
behaviour)
• Deciding what to do (intention) is different than determining
how it should be done (execution)
 XML gives us the ability to:
• abstract Knowledge from Behaviour
• abstract Intention from Execution

29. XML
The Language of the Fractal Enterprise
 The Fractal Enterprise
• Each entity enters an Enterprise with its own
knowledge assets and intentions
• The Enterprise must aggregate these assets and
intentions into a whole
• It is a fractal enterprise because each entity is
similar to the whole and to the other parts of the
enterprise (right down to individuals)
• The aggregated knowledge and intention determine
the collective behaviour (potential) of the enterprise
and guide its physical actions (execution)

30. The
Unconscious Organization
The Opposite of the Fractal Enterprise
 The Unconscious Organization
• Guided by opinion and supposition
• No Matrix exists in which Knowledge can be
“published” and no shared intention exists
• Systems implement things that are not
understood
• objectives and requirements are unarticulated
• business rules are “hardwired”
• the consequences are often unexpected
• entropy erodes the investment rapidly
• This is reality today for most organizations

31. The Future
Managing Knowledge in the Fractal Enterprise
 XML provides the technical ability to manage
knowledge
 XML gives us the abstraction tools for
addressing the complex issues of forming
and managing the modern enterprise
• Knowledge and Intention must exist on a
separate plane from potential behaviour and
actual execution
• Knowledge and Intention must continually
guide behaviour and execution

32. The Future
Deliberate Systems
 Deliberate Systems
• Automated Systems entirely formed based on a
clear understanding of the knowledge to be
implemented and the intentions that will guide it
• Automated Systems designed to respond to the
evolving knowledge of an enterprise and to its
adapting intentions
• Automated Systems that are critical to applying
the vast knowledge assets of the modern
enterprise

33. Managing knowledge on one plane
while facilitating its application on another
Recurrent Pattern