From Information Architecture to Knowledge Architecture

The simple answer is that knowledge is information plus various kinds of contexts and so knowledge architecture starts with information architecture (organization, navigating, labeling and retrieval of information) and adds different types of intellectual, personal and social contexts.

A context is something that gives meaning and depth to information. Rather than try to define context further, let me tell you a story. Recently, I was at a doctor’s office and the doctor came out and told a young woman that since she had changed her appointment from the following day to today that he wasn’t able to get her charts. He repeated that information and waited for a reaction from the young woman who, since she didn’t have the context that would give meaning to that piece of information, remained silent. She didn’t know if the doctor’s information meant the doctor wouldn’t see her, if the appointment could be held but wouldn’t be as productive, or if she needed to do something. The doctor knew the context, which was twofold: Not having a chart meant that the doctor would be less effective and that he would have to work harder to elicit information from her.

The doctor transmitted the necessary information but not the necessary knowledge, and the result was a complete lack of understanding. I can only hope that the doctor was better at communicating context in the actual interview. Perhaps if the doctor had a button that she could click on (Explain, or More Info, or What Does That Mean?), the woman would have understood. In other words, if there had only been a knowledge architecture supporting the interaction.

Knowledge architecture then is the attempt to create an intellectual infrastructure that can support the organization and retrieval of not just information but sets of related contexts around information--contexts that change over time and with different dimensions of applications.

Knowledge architecture deals with a richer, more multidimensional intellectual universe of discourse and through that richer universe, must deal with the shifting chaotic world of applied information, i.e., contexts of actions.

Tom Reamy is chief knowledge architect for KAPS Group (kapsgroup), a group of knowledge architecture consultants), e-mail treamy@well.com.