Cosma / Communication / Knowledge
This page is one of the most important pages on the Cosma Web site. Cosma is founded upon the premise that when Knowledge Resources are systematically identified, intuitively (re)organized, and then presented in a spatial format, everyone can master finding them quickly and easily. This premise has driven the development of Cosma. Of course, doing this involved thouroughly understanding a lot about “Knowledge” (e.g. Knowledge Management, Knowledge Theory, Knowledge Organization etc.) in fact, this ended up requiring treating “Knowledge” as the discipline that it can be, in and of itself, and that is represented in the page below. 1
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Pages and Subpages
Cosma provides access to content resources organized around these basic elements of a Communication System: Media (channel), Knowledge (message), Human (sender/receiver) and Noise (interference). See also Outline (Site Map)
In addition, Cosma tends to focus on “Knowledge” resources.
The “DIKW Hierarchy”, also known variously as the “Wisdom Hierarchy”, the “Knowledge Hierarchy”, the “Information Hierarchy”, and the “Knowledge Pyramid”, refers loosely to a class of models for representing structural and/or functional relationships between the content of communication (data, information, knowledge, and wisdom). — Wikipedia
Most writers about the hierarchy refer to this passage from T. S. Eliot’s The Rock.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? — T.S. Eliot, The Rock
Russell Ackoff popularized the hierarchy to categorize the content of communication.
From data to wisdom (Russell L. Ackoff, Journal of Applies Systems Analysis)
The wisdom of the world: Messages for the new millennium (Russell L. Ackoff, The Futurist)
On passing through 80 (Russell L. Ackoff, Systemic practice and action research)
See Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom
Resources
These are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma. More…
General
Portal
Knowledge Resources Page (Cosma, You are here!)
Dictionary
knowledge : the sum of what is known : the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind — Webster See also OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary
Thesaurus
Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords
Encyclopedia
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something, that can include descriptions, facts, information, and/or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to both the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); and it can be more or less formal or systematic. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology, and the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as “justified true belief.” There is however no single agreed upon definition of knowledge, and there are numerous theories to explain it. — Wikipedia
Outline
Outline of Knowledge (Mary E. Hopper, Cosma)
Outline of Knowledge (Wikipedia)
Preservation
History
History of Knowledge (Piero Scaruffi)
The Geography of Knowledge in Assyria and Babylonia: A Diachronic Analysis of Four Scholarly Libraries (University of Cambridge)
A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot (Burke, P., 2000)
Timeline of Knowledge (History World)
Quotation
Museum
Knowledge and Learning (The British Museum)
Museum of Knowledge, Corbusier’s dream project that failed (The Tribute of India
Library
WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library
Bibliography
Knowledge (John Turri, Oxford Bibliographies)
Participation
Education
International Baccalaureate (IB)
Course
MIT IAP 2000 Knowledge Systems 101: From Alexandria to Hitchhiker’s Guide (Hopper)
Open Education Consortium
Community
knowledge community (Gartner IT Glossary), Knowledge community (Wikipedia)
Book
Government
Document
Expression
Fun
Useless facts and funny unnecessary knowledge (Try this! 🙂
Game
Arts
Defining Knowledge Art (Open Compendium)
Poem
The Rock (T. S. Eliot), OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
Music
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1. One stop in the saga of Mary E. Hopper’s mission to understand “Knowledge” as a discipline took her to MIT where she developed and presented this short course during her Post Doc in Comparative Media Studies.
Hopper, M. E. (2000, January). Knowledge systems 101: From Alexandria to Hitchhiker’s Guide [Short Course]. Independent Activity Period (IAP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.