knobit - on structured knowledge

8/6/2019 Knobit - On Structured Knowledge

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ON STRUCTURED KNOWLEDGE GATHERING

Keywords:

knobit [pronounce like knock] - elementary unit of knowledge,

knowledge bit; knowledge, education, knowledge management.

Preamble:

Article focuses on the delivery and gathering of knowledge as well as

on benchmarking of knowledge possessment.

We are quickly moving towards information society where useful as

well as useless information is available at ever-increasing rate.

People, who are determined to keep themselves on top of that

growing global knowledge pile, have daunting challenges ahead of

them.

With the increasing content capacity of the society there is an ever-

increasing need to understand and interconnect available

informational fragments. This is a route where information combinesto knowledge, which ultimately matures to wisdom. However, paths

to wisdom involve steps of undefined size and of unknown number

rendering it extremely hard to calculate the sum of someones

knowledge.

State of affairs

Can you get a well-paid job in NYC if you graduated from any Eastern

European University? Youll be much better off by having the Harvard

diploma instead. Prestige aside, the reasoning here is simple - your

employer thinks you got more at Harvard than you may have had at

other places.

He is basing that assumption on previous collective experience and is

most likely correct. But he does not take into account that we arerapidly moving into era where the same information is available to


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everybody. Even the nuts and bolts how to educate properly are

presented essentially to every one looking for it.

Call for knowledge-loaded individuals is loud and is increasing with

technological progress, lessening the likelihood for a small number of

celebrated universities to answer the demand. As a matter of fact

there are a number of able people who have been educated at some

point in their life, but now are hidden behind the blind of general

ignorance. How to identify their talent and expertise?

Sure, there are exams, theory tests and various other ordeals to

assess the invisible. You study, fear, sweat and - boom - that was just

not your day! These things happen. Bad luck, sorry, youre out. While

theres no simple way to prove yourself or to display the knowledge

you have been inflicted with there is hardly a method to recognize

these qualities in others. How to overcome the discrepancy between

the needs of society and accessibility of knowledge?

Knobit

Have you ever observed a hen? Hens gather crumbs and with time

you can see howthey grow bigger the more they devour. Lets use a

liberated metaphor and compare us as humans with hens when we

act in the same way while gathering the bits of knowledge (knobits).

Except there is no reason to measure the size here not even after a

passionate lecture.

However, you did receive something cerebral and if we could assess

the obtained scope, lets just register it. Standard knobit consists of

knowledge-tests with fitting tutorials. If you prove that you got the

message (a knobit) you have demonstrated agility of thinking and

you have captured the knowledge. If you missed the knobit in the

first instance but are still interested then you need time or

repetitions. The sharper you are the shorter is time you need toobtain a knobit.


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By marking knobits down as your property from now on we are

imminently having an overview of the consistency of the gathered

knowledge - a knowledge-field. The more you learn the more of these

tiny certificates you have for the description of this imaginary space.If there are omitted regions of knowledge needed for certain tasks

you can fill the missing parts with ease by learning the lacking

knobits.

The look at the computerized multidimensional image of a

knowledge-field would surprise most of us. We can see what you

have learned even if you do not remember all the past details or the

topics, but you have demonstrated the ability to capture the

essentials at some time in your life. We can even describe the

knowledge-field items which are old and which have been re-tested

or acquired recently. Looking at separate chronological layers or

flattening the image gives us powerful tools for measuring

knowledge. It helps us to make assumptions about one's wisdom and

enables simple knowledge-based benchmarking. Most importantly,

you will have a self-image of your knowledge field you can get start

to improve.

Now ask yourself - did you get your first official knobit? Did you get

the knobit of Knobit?

Adaptation and a deeper look

Isnt that amazing that not until recently a single science fiction

writer ever wrote about something resembling internet, although

rough biological model of it in the form of brain has been part of

every one of us?

It might have been too obvious. Or it might prove that an

acceleration of technological progress has reached the level where it

moves with the speed close to the one of imagination.


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To compete successfully in that wildly changing environment of

future you need to adapt at supersonic speed. You need to sniff at

new trends, useful or more efficient techniques and tools at lightning

speed to stay at forefront. Unfortunately, there are no really usefultools to keep up with your constantly changing knowledge needs.

The Knobit Concept

We suggest an alternative approach for judging and assisting the

accumulation and spreading of knowledge. Roughly speaking, most

of human knowledge can be split to elementary knowledge particles

(knobits). Knobit can be viewed as a single issue, point or event,

which can be related and understood as a whole. Knobit consists of

identification, explanation and pool of corresponding questions. The

questions facilitate and test the understanding or passing of the

knobit. Knobits reside on internet and are written adhering to

standard, using public toolset(s).

Knobit's identification specifies precise field of knowledge current

knobit relates to. Identification of knobit would also carry information

about the level of preferred user, scope of knobit, individualization

reference, language and the author of the knobit.

For example, there would be a knobit for 3rd grade about

multiplication of basic numbers, geared towards pupils with more (or

less) developed visualization skills. Or knobit for 6th grade telling the

story of the life of Ramses II, pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, for visually

impaired. We are talking about knobits suited for every possible

occurrence.

Success assessment of passed knobits is binary - whether you

understood it or not. You can always repeat or find an alternative

knobit, which would work better for you, of course.


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By passing the knobit the transaction is being done on selected

authority server. Means for knobit-field storage vary from individual

knobit-card to generalized databases.

Knobits and education

Would you picture a small child starting to explore the world via

knobits? Can you imagine picturesque expansion of childs

multidimensional knobit-field? Every passed knobit would be

recorded which makes it readily available for later retrieval. Ever-

human need to remember forgotten things would be solved by

visualizing ones personal knobit-field and promptly retrieving that

very knobit you used to learn the topic in the first place. Click-and-

know, as simple as that!

Even more, knobits are small - everyone can grasp small and simple

things. Knobit assortment gives flexibility to the (self-) educational

process allowing to adjust to individual liking. Lets not debate on the

subject of auditory, visual or other types of perceptional inclinations

among people - if needed one can implement these methodological

aspects. What about giving a chance to describe the same topic to an

artist, mathematician or a self-educator? As a result there would be

different approaches for the same particulars we regard as correct

knowledge. Accordingly these methodological approaches will

multiply the benefit if we give people a choice. Certainly not all

approaches are good, but in time the best ones will settle out as

preferred choice amongst users.

As mentioned, knobits can be collected in a controlled environment

as well as without supervision. In case of latter, persons passed

knobits would be marked differently and he or she could attend test

anywhere to officialize individual study.


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Knobits and Business

Knobit concept can be effectively applied to economy. Employer can

objectively assess relevant knowledge of prospective employee by

matching his or her partial knobit-field against knobit-set required forparticular position. Furthermore, what about studying the knowledge-

fields of your companys workforce in time-line and introducing new

knobits tactically in the right time? Routinely arranged internal

companywide trainings can be administered and tracked,

comprehension can be improved to the level desired.

In knobit concept, companies themselves would be knobit-sets. In

other words, all core and supplementary processes, work

instructions, employee skills and work habits can be described as a

knobit-set. By gaining a new method or skill, employee of that

company would possess new knobit for that company. In order to

compete, the company must master rapid assimilation of newly

acquired knobit into other employees knobit-fields.

Writing of Knobits

By setting certain standards and provided easy to use toolkit in the

form of freeware, anyone can write a knobit. Since multitude of

different explanation paths exist for every topic in the book of

learning, great many are needed. Openness further helps to take

advantage of the intellectual potential available in the border-free

information society.

Certifying of Knobits

The need would arise for Knobit Approval Authorities, which would

operate, similarly to Patent Offices. The concept from science

journalism, known as peer revision can also be utilized. The knobit

would get approved if it is useful and contains novel teaching angle,

whatever it may be.


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The Knobit Net

Why would one want to write a knobit? Setting up The Knobit

Exchange or Knobit Net anyone can write a knobit; if certified it will

be listed and can be bought and sold for micropayments or givenaway freely, up to the author. Schools, institutions and companies

would pay for knobits passed by their people. We feel it would be

worth of sharing the wealth created via quicker learning with the

author of the knobit. On the other hand, individuals could use all the

knobits for their private, unsupervised studies for free.

Conclusion

We believe implementation of Knobit concept will help people to

transform the process of gaining knowledge into a more tangible and

pleasurable experience. It will also level the playing field of learning

between different people, by letting everyone to improve their

knowledge at individual pace and by setting personal goals. The

Knobit concept can facilitate effective knowledge distribution

amongst experts as well as for common people. It would helpindividuals and companies more easily to adapt to changes while

retaining productivity.

Finally, we hope Knobit concept will help to proceed from

infrastructure-building Internet Age to brain-powered Knowledge

Society.

Nolvak, R. Port, K.

knobit - on structured knowledge

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