Download - Tacit Knowledge in Open Knowledge
What early Linux developers can teach us about open
knowledge
Ben SpigelDepartment of GeographyThe Ohio State University
The problem of knowledge on the internet
• Open knowledge is useless unless people use it
• One must understand knowlege in order to use it
• How do we develop this understanding for users of open knowledge?
Why is this a problem for open knowledge
• People need to learn how to use the knowledge
• People need to learn why the knowledge should be open
• This is hard to do over the internet
What is knowledge?
•More than just facts
•Applied information
•Information modified by
human intelligence
Why is knowledge hard to understand
• Communication requires a shared 'language'
• Even if everyone speaks English, a shared jargon or 'codebook' is needed
Here's the scoop:
taylor-uucp-1.03beta from convex - no patches applied...GCC 2.1 (from tsx-11, I think - H.J. ftp'd it somewhere)
Linux 0.95a virgin kernel
I had to tweak the Makefile (don't use -O, -s, or -g!), and doa real dance with the configuration file and conf.h, but it talksand transfers files! I haven't gotten uuxqt running yet (it gives me a memory fault), and the binaries are AWFULLY big (sigh) - the tar of just the executables and stuff is just over 1MB, but it runs!
Hey, H.J., got shared libs for gcc-2.1 yet?? :) Text
comp.os.linuxApril 5, 1992
How does a shared language form?
• A shared past is needed
• Shared history, shared practices, shared stories
• Communities of Practice
Communities of practice
• Allows people to share tacit knowledge
• Hard to form over the internet
• Requires people to trust each other
The case of Linux
• Immediately a global community formed
• Analysis of early newsgroup postings shows almost no miscommunications
• But how?
1,900Kilometers
Legend
PostersPOSTERS
0 - 1
2
3
4 - 5
9 - 10
Linux as a community of practice
• Shared knowledge of programming (C and Unix)
• Shared computer jargon
• Shared history of hacking
• Shared programming
1,900Kilometers
Legend
PostsCOUNT
0 - 3
4 - 8
9 - 15
16 - 27
28 - 35
Implications for open knowledge
• Free, open and modifiable isn't enough
• For the knowledge to be useful, a community must form around it
• Forming this community is very difficult
Building an open knowledge community of practice
• Conferences like this
• Creation of a more involved electronic community
• Common methods to access open knowledge
• Shared stories of why we need open knowledge
Challenges for open knowledge community
building
• Diversity of the open knowledge tent
• Role of the Open Knowledge Foundation
• Different elements of open knowledge