Email and knowledge creation: supporting inquiring systems and enhancing wisdom

The real promise of organizational communication technologies may lie in their potential to facilitate participative discourse between knowledge workers at all levels in distributed locations and time zones. Such discourse enables the exchange of sometimes conflicting viewpoints through which resolution and symbiosis, organizational knowledge can be built. This chapter presents a case study of a Singerian inquiring organization which illustrates how afluid dynamic community of employees can use email to build knowledge, learn, make decisions, and enhance wisdom through a cycle of knowledge combination (divergence) and knowledge qualification (convergence). The chapter offers new theoretical perspectives on the enhancement of wisdom in inquiring organizations and provides practical insights into the use of email for supporting effective knowledge creation in inquiring organizations.

Challenging accepted wisdom about conceptions of teaching in academic development

In recent years, conceptions of teaching held by academic staff have achieved an increased focus in the scholarly and practical work of teaching developers. Views on the impact of conceptions of teaching on improving university teaching, as well as their significance in doing so, vary from those that advocate changing conceptions as a necessary first step in the process of improvement to more recent views that characterize conceptions of teaching as merely artifacts of reflection on teaching. This paper explores this range of views, raises a number of questions about the current accepted views on the importance of conceptions of teaching development work, and challenges the current accepted wisdom in this important area.

The development of a wisdom autonomic grid

It is not a simple matter to develop an integrative approach that exploits  synergies between knowledge management and knowledge discovery in   order to monitor and manage the full lifecycle of knowledge and provides  services quickly, reliably and securely. One of the main problems is the heterogeneity of the involved resources that represent knowledge. Data mining systems produce knowledge in a form meant to be understandable  to machines and on the other hand in knowledge management systems the  priority is placed on the readability and usability of knowledge by humans.  The Semantic Web is a promising platform to unify this heterogeneity and, in conjunction with novel techniques for Web Intelligence it could offer more  then just knowledge - wisdom. The Wisdom Autonomic Grid is an original proposal of a knowledge based Grid that is able to configure and reconfigure itself under varying and unpredictable conditions and optimize its working, performs something akin to healing and provides self-protection, as  visioned in the IBM Autonomic Computing initiative. This paper presents an original framework for creating advanced applications to integrate  knowledge discovery and knowledge management in the Autonomic Grid  and Web environments.

Aristotle on wisdom

Referring to Atistotle's Ethics and Politics, the thesis argues that knowledge of wisdom entails knowledge of how to acquire it. Accordingly, becoming wiser involves the development of one's virtues, and becoming a good human. It argues that Aristotle's ethical and political theory is applicable to present liberal democratic society: being a good citizen/administrator entails being a good human.

A societal knowledge management system : harnessing indigenous wisdom to build sustainable predictors for adaptation to climate change

As the climate changes globally time-honoured climate in a region may change and shift to another region. Consequently, local predictors of climate may no longer apply to the area where they were born, but may be invaluable in new regions where previously reliable predictors have become outmoded This paper is set on the proposition thaI traditional (indigenous) know/edge can be a strategic source in adapting to climate change, in these changing times. The research reported in this paper takes the Societal Knowledge Management approach where knowledge that rests within local communities, is harnessed to inform local communities and scientists regarding climate change impacts, so as to adapt to them accurately. A phased study was conducted that aimed at acquiring, synthesising and disseminating traditional knowledge regarding change in monsoon patterns in India. Traditional wisdom prevalent among fhe myriad communities of India, was collected, collated and classified into knowledge spheres such as Bio-Indicators, Wind Movement, Atmospheric Pal/ems, Astrological Methods, Festivals and Rituals, Direction, Characteristics of the Rain, Characteristics of Celestial Bodies etc and incorporaled into a knowledge portal, which is the basis for building the Societal Knowledge Management System (SKM). Subsequently, the SKM is to be harmonised with scientific predictors on seasonal weather patterns will allow researchers to identify if the existing indicators and monsoon pattems are subject to change, and if so how. Research in progress is aimed at integrating the knowledge with modern science and disseminating this knowledge through local knowledge centres, at village levels. Furthermore, this study is to be replicated in Australia, by harnessing indigenous knowledge, to build the SKM for Australia that could assist in building a better understanding of the factors that impact the environment, methods of building sustainable predictors for climate and approaches for adapting the climate changes. The research reported is expected to inform policy makers, scientists, governance institutions as well as researchers regarding the applicability of indigenous knowledge in building sustainable predictors for adaptation to climate change in the two countries cited and can be extended into other countries.

Management as a contextual practice : the need to balance science, skills and practical wisdom

This paper contributes to the debate regarding whether or not management is, or should become, a profession. Using the principles of dialectic logic, arguments for the thesis that management is a profession and the antithesis that management is more akin to an art or a craft are critically reviewed. Aristotle’s intellectual virtues episteme (science), techne (skills) and phronesis (practical wisdom) are introduced as a synthesis to this debate. Rather than characterizing management as a profession, it is argued that management is a contextual practice that requires a blend of all three intellectual virtues.

Rudd’s presidential politics vs Gillard’s Westminster wisdom : who will win out in the style battle?

It is fitting that Kevin Rudd’s official campaign for a return to the Labor leadership commenced in the United States, for his political project is one forged in the image of what many Australians imagine American presidential politics to be like: populist, and based on a direct appeal to the people in a way that bypasses parliamentary politics.

Minahasan indigenous perspectives on place planning and management : tracing the indigenous culture through the lens of local wisdom

Indigenous cultures draw upon many thousands of years of residency and environmental adaptation offering unique knowledge resources to better understand our landscapes and environment. The Minahasan society, on the island of Sulawesi in the Indonesian archipelago, is one such Indigenous community. The Minahasan are the Indigenous community of northern Sulawesi, before the Portuguese and Dutch 1500-1900 colonization of this island, and the later nationalist cultural assimilation following post Indonesian independence. Thus, some 500 years of post-European contact and management can be contrasted against over I 00,000 years of Minahasan society. Further, the majority of this colonisation has been focused upon the coastal fringes resulting in a relatively intact Minahasan cultural landscape within the interior of northern Sulawesi focused upon the Tondano Lake catchment. This paper considers the importance of the Minahasan-formed cultural landscape, its importance to this culture, and the role and influence it continues to have in settlement formation and planning in northern Sulawesi despite conventional Indonesian and Western-informed sustainable urban and regional planning traditions and knowledge. It draws upon intensive qualitative research using 14 different villages, to analyse and compare local knowledge and land-relationships developed by the respective communities to manage and curate their unique characteristics as well as ensuring adaption without compromising their cultural, social and economic values. The research embodies this ethnoecological information in seeking to analyse historical and contemporary land use planning systems, and to offer a future planning perspective that will respect and endure this relationship and environmental management regime.