The "Source Document" Approach to Creating Shared Context,
by Michael McMaster, President of Knowledge Based Development, co-founder of the "Complexity" executive conferences, and author of "The Praxis Equation: Design Principles for Intelligent Organisation"

The ability to share understanding is key to the co-operative thinking and action of independent individuals. In the past, this has often been resolved by attempts to lock into agreement and fix the basis for understanding. The cost of this is that, over time, the basis for co-operation becomes rigid and out of date. A source document is a designed framework for understanding, interpreting and taking action that also adapts over time.

We will explore this idea in dialogue based around a particular application and a starting point. The application is to knowledge ecology itself. The starting point is the present (early) formulation of such a framework created by me, George Pór, Bill Veltrop and Etienne Wenger. You are invited to read the current state, any dialogue that has occurred before your participation and to then make your contributions ask your questions. Initially, at least, this dialogue is limited to the topic of knowledge ecology rather than broader and more general corporate applications.

© Copyright, 1999, Community Intelligence Labs, Ben Lomond, CA