On Knowledge Federation and Gardens

Triple Helix ConferenceStanford University

13 July, 2011Jack Park

© 2011, Jack ParkThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Great Law of the Iroquois

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation...”

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”

–Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Social Computing: Webs of Trust and Reputation

Image Courtesy Katy Börner

Knowledge gardening is… Facilitating large-scale discourse

ordered gardens

wild borders

ordered gardens

wild borders

Structured but emergent networks of claims and arguments

Informally expressed claims and arguments,

awaiting ‘proper linkage’

Source: Simon Buckingham Shum

Towards a cultivated ecosystem…

Social Networks + Knowledge Gardens

• Following slides illustrate:

– Social behaviors

• Contributions to the wild borders of a garden

• Refinements of those contributions – A well-formed contribution that grows out of a rough

contribution

Joe, Med Student as Gardener

Immune Response

Bacterial Infection

Macrophage

Free Radical

Reactive Oxygen

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Bookmark page with these tags

Annotate page with this idea

How to fight bacterial

infection?

Sara, Home-maker as Gardener

Antioxidant

Free Radical

Bookmark page with these tags

antioxidantskill

free radicals

Annotate page with this idea

How to prevent cancer?

José, Cancer Patient in Garden

antioxidantskill

free radicals

¡Ay, caramba! What’s this all

about?

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Free Radical

Bacterial Infection

José suffers recurring bacterial infections

How to fight bacterial

infection?

José views federated resources created by other gardeners

José as GardenerNo more

antioxidants!

antioxidantskill

free radicals

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Add a new Connection between

the two ideas

Must Avoid

Olivia in the Garden

Free Radical

Bacterial Infection

antioxidantskill

free radicals

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Must Avoid

How to improve

this?

Olivia as Gardener

antioxidantskill

free radicals

Contraindicates

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Bacterial Infection Antioxidants

Because

Create a new set of representations by connecting the two core concepts and

explaining the connection

Possible Controversy?

ContraindicatesBacterial Infection Antioxidants

Resolve Through Dialogue

“Compromised host” as a new concept to be represented in the

knowledge base

Improved Representation

antioxidantskill

free radicals

Contraindicates

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Bacterial Infection Antioxidants

Because

Appropriate For

Compromised Host

Completed Representation

antioxidantskill

free radicals

Contraindicates

macrophages usefree radicals to

kill bacteria

Bacterial Infection Antioxidants

Because

Appropriate For

Compromised Host

Let’s Co-create a Garden and Federate