Thought for the day: Addiction to only knowledge is not enough, it will lead you to darkness

Extract from:

• Essays Divine and Human Sri Aurobindo

"The metaphysician thinks that he has got over the difficulty about the validity of premises by getting to the tattwas, the ideal truths of universal existence. Afterwards, he thinks, there can be no fear of confusion or error and by understanding and fixing them we shall be able to proceed from a sound basis to the rest of our task.

... Both the logician and the philosopher are apt to forget that they are dealing with words and words divorced from experience can be the most terrible misleaders in the world. Precisely because they are capable of giving us so much light, they are also capable of lighting us into impenetrable darkness. Tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayam ratah; “Deeper is the darkness into which they enter who are addicted to knowledge alone.”  continue reading  The New Indian Express 01st October 2013 

 On the same shelf:

• THE TRUST FREQUENCY: Ten Assumptions For A New Paradigm
  Andrew Cameron Bailey
• A Greater Psychology: An Introduction to the Psychological Thought of Sri Aurobindo
  Sri Aurobindo

What has been done will be done again -- Thought for the day

By JOSH L. DICKEY
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - When a mysterious biblical philosopher wrote what would become Ecclesiastes 1:9, he may as well have been staring into the liquor cabinet: "What has been done will be done again," his thoughts roughly went. "There is nothing new under the sun."

Deep Thoughts - Writing on the White Board

Two things amaze me from a post (given below); viz., first it is about the human desire to learn anyhow, anywhere, anyways; and second, it shows the creative visualization of a blogger to capture the tacit and make it tangible (that it gets traffic, is an interesting observation). Moral of the story: Every information its reader.

Deep Thoughts, posted by m.m.a., The Hospital Librarian, June 16, 2006
Everyday the white board outside of our hospital chapel has a new inspirational, thought-provoking, timely quote for passersby to read. It's a busy hallway and many people make a point of checking it out, including myself. The quotes aren't always of a "religious nature" (whatever that may mean) and they've featured words from Oprah to Moses and everywhere in between.
I was pleasantly surprised today to find this quote from the infamous Jessamyn West. Read the quote

See also my blog on quotations

Technocrati tags: Inspiration; Care givers; Spirituality.

Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

...knowledge resides in people: not in machines or documents. [continue reading, The duality of knowledge]

This is my first experience to express the application of the field of Knowledge Management (KM) outside the business and coporate world. My inspiration for this comes from my own Webliography. This Webliography contains many resources and valuable documents. However, today I decided to go deeper into the domains that are less traveled by many KMs.

Here, I would like to go with the terms vertical and tacit knowledge. My aim is to find a connection between, two facets, viz., a) the tacit knowledge and its use by Knowledge Management (KM) profession; and b), how deep is this penetration of KM in non-business circles, or precisely in everyday life. And in doing so I will focus on whatever relates to the individual with in the spiritual, religious and philosophical disciplines.

The bottom line here is to find how a profession can aid in private and personal spaces. I don't need to say too much in this regard. This is well stated by Nancy White. And I quote:

Recently on the KM4Dev (Knowledge Management for Development) list there has been a very interesting discussion on the impacts of major disasters such as epidemics, floods, wars, etc. on the knowledge base of a community or profession. What happens when HIV takes out a significant portion of a community's teachers, or engineers? What happens when the knowledge of local crops is lost during war, famine or natural disaster? What happens when a huge portion of a community's population does not return after a hurricane, depleting the rich knowledge of local history, culture and customs? These are huge issues.

Terminology:
What is tacit knowledge?

By definition, tacit knowledge is not easily shared. One of Polanyi's famous aphorisms is: "We know more than we can tell. Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves...
Tacit knowledge is embedded in group and organizational relationships, core values, assumptions and beliefs. It is hard to identify, locate, quantify, map or value. [source]

Netizens, generally, use the term horizontal to imply it as the surface, or more probably to do flat thinking. Whereas, vertical, for the same virtual context, is going in the deep Web, i.e., going vertically by industry or subject categories [see: VerticalPortals.com].

Vertical in Religious Connotation:
However, from the faith perspective, there is also a religious analogy to explain the term: vertical. Most religions and spiritualities use this term to portray the connections that matter in the process. And, let me clarify:

When Saint Thomas Church was celebrating its 175th anniversary as a parish in 1998, Bishop Grein spoke at our banquet about what he appreciated in Saint Thomas’s mission in midtown New York. He said, “It has something to do with vertical religion. And by that I mean those expressions and acts of our religion that draw us upward. Jacob’s experience at Bethel would be a good example of vertical religion, that ladder connecting heaven and earth, angels ascending and descending. There he encounters God.” [Religion: Vertical and Horizontal source]

For Judaism, like most of Western culture, the controlling religious metaphor is vertical: religion is a matter of up and down. [An Introduction to Kabballah, source] or Google for more

For a faithful, then, horizontal may refer to communitas, or a network of communities -- sharing works, words, messages, sermons, etc. In this context, Knowldege Managment (KM) is talking about the tangible, by and large.

Obviously, vertical refers to the top to down (coming from the divine to the soul) or vice-versa. In this context from the knowledge management point of view, it is more so about the tacit, as a dominating source.

One may argue and this possibility does exist. In fact, tacit may also be in horizontal communications and dialogue. For instance, inter-religious or intra-religious dialogue generates such knowledge. This possibility and overlap, is not ruled out. See for instance a citation in this context.

It is an emerging process that has tremendous potential for transforming the way that people communicate and share tacit knowledge in everyday conversation. [source]

Spiritual Healing:
Spritual healing for and by people, the most wanted tool today, is related, by and large, to this tacit knowledge.

As far as the tacit knowledge is concerned, there is a general understanding that theology can't be quantified [See: Russell Stannard, Experimenting with the Divine, Science and Theology News, May 2006].

But, I think, there is no such constraint in measuring the qualititative aspects. In this is the room for discussion and research.

Then, how or what matters in spiritual healing can be surmized in the following:

capturing this tacit knowledge

storing this tacit knowledge

sharing this tacit knowlege

For instance, many faith communities have oral traditions and practices. The first step would be to capture this knowledge-base.

One would also have a look at the following golden rules for tacit knowledge:

1)suspend assumptions and certainties
2) observe the observer
3) listen to your listening
4) slow down the inquiry
5) be aware of thought
6) befriend polarization
For instructions about this best practice lesson go to: Dialogue, by Bill Isaacs, at siliconyogi.com

More on this, as I find during my search, or based on the responses that I get from you all.
----------
Vertical & Tacit:

“Tacit Knowledge” versus “Explicit Knowledge” Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice by Ron Sanchez,

Cecil Hook, “Vertical and Horizontal Worship and Service To God,”

“Vertical religion--that which connects with God explicitly through prayer and repentance… horizontal religion—connecting people through common suffering and celebrating…” details;

“vertical aspiration of faith and spirit and the horizontal service of people's needs,” details

Rev. Barbara Kenley, First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Indiana. “Sermon”

Main Research Theme: Investigation and Construction of Memory in Everyday Life, Murakami Harumi

Knowledge Management Domains, Tacit, and intangibles:

tacit vs. explicit theories: the impact on our thinking and 'theorizing,' Mentor Cana at November 18, 2004

Knowledge Management + Exoteric-Esoteric Duality

Walter Van Herck, The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Religion

Tacit Knowledge, Encyclopedia of Science and Religion.

Jerry H. Gill (Eckerd College, USA), Tacit knowing and religious belief, article in pdf [requires subscription], International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion. 6 (Summer), pp. 73-88

Victoria Ward and Clive Holtham, The Role of Private & Public Spaces in Knowledge Management

Nancy White comments on: Olaf's Notebook: What is the relation between KM and inner reform?

Higher level KM involves more of tacit knowledge management. article in pdf, requires subscription

David J. Owen, and and Min-Lin E. Fang, Information-seeking behavior in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): an online survey of faculty at a health sciences campus, J Med Libr Assoc. 2003 July; 91(3): 311–321. full text of the article

“Faith of the Future: Updating Religious Paradigms for the Infotech Age” by Don C. Davis The Futurist, September-October 2005. 4 Pages. Article.
Religious leaders now have a major opportunity to accept the new knowledge and capabilities created by science and technology. The author believes that this acceptance will help guide individuals to a global consciousness and a better understanding of their responsibilities for each other and the future of the world. see Fulltext

Chester, G. & Neelameghan, A. (2006). "Information Professional: Knowledge and Skills Development for Serving Marginalized and Rural Communities." Webology, 3(3), Article 29. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n3/a29.html
Keywords: Rural community; Marginalized community; Information needs study; Information professional; Education and training; Curriculum design; Knowledge and skills; Communication skills; Community knowledge management; Outreach services

Real-Life Knowledge Management: Lessons from the Field, Editors: Abdul Samad (Sami) Kazi & Patricia Wolf
"Through the eighteen case studies presented in this book, we learn about practical experiences in consultancies, financial institutions, fire fighting, global project management groups, public administrations, research and development organisations, small and medium enterprises, sports centres, the aerospace sector, the automotive industry, the construction industry, the IT sector, the maritime industry, the mould and die making industry, the nuclear industry, the oil and gas industry, and the water management sector. The case studies draw from a pool of experience spanning Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Norway, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom."
Review: It’s not often that you get something for nothing but in this case you really can! ‘Real Life Knowledge Management – Lessons from the Field’ is a collection of 18 knowledge management case studies from across Europe and the Middle East... There are some really interesting case studies and the book is beautifully illustrated by Arye and Ron Dvir. Enjoy! Continue reading this review @ A Compound of Alchymie

Understanding knowledge management and information management: the need for an empirical perspective, by France Bouthillier and Kathleen Shearer, Information Research, Vol. 8 No. 1, October 2002

KM, IM, DM - Survival of the Fittest

Knowledge Management Applications in Multifaith & / or Multicultural Transactions Revisited

Whats making news today:

New Technology Probes Ancient Manuscript, By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and Costas Kantouris, Thu Jun 1, 2006

Greek researcher Apostolos Pierris describes a new effort to read a burnt 2,400-year-old papyrus scroll CNN

A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest surviving book which may hold a key to understanding early monotheistic beliefs. More than four decades after the Derveni papyrus was found in a 2,400-year-old nobleman's grave in northern Greece, researchers said Thursday they are close to uncovering new text through high-tech digital analysis from the blackened fragments left after the manuscript was burnt on its owner's funeral pyre...

Now, archaeologist Polyxeni Veleni believes U.S. imaging and scanning techniques used to decipher the Judas Gospel which portrays Judas not as a sinister betrayer but as Jesus' confidant will considerably expand and clarify that text. [ Continue reading] See Google News and other Blogs on this news story

Faithwise Related Stories:

The Internet and Knowledge Management for the Bahá’í Faith

United Christian Faith Ministries - Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer
Related Resources:

Developing and evaluating a document visualization system for information management

Building a community memory : Capturing knowledge creation processes in online environments. "Working through the beaded curtain" Details

Developing and evaluating a document visualization system for information management Details

The above diagram offers interesting visualization for sharing knowledge, and is worth being considered for adapting in the Multifaith & Multicultural environments.

Community Wise Resources:

Knowledge-Based Community Development A Path to Success
What exactly is knowledge-based community development? ... Should you be thinking about going the way of knowledge-based community development? ...

Sharing Knowledge for Community Development and Transformation: A Handbook, by Dr. Kingo J. Mchombu. Originally published in October 2002 by Oxfam Canada, this 162-page handbook has been updated and is now in its second edition (2004). [Free publication] Contents include:
Local Content: Internal Information and Knowledge Sources . . . . . .
Indigenous Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Traditional Objects and Items like Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Other Locally Created Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
External Information and Knowledge Content

See: previous item in this blog:
Knowledge Management Applications in Multifaith & / or Multicultural Transactions

Knowledge Management Applications in Multifaith & / or Multicultural Transactions

Since a couple of years I have been building a webliography on Knowledge Management: Society / Community Wise.

This is a handy list of KM resources on social and humanities connection; it looks beyond corporate intellectual capital management space…; and tries to search for total-solutions that can be applied as best practices in everyday life.

Today, I received a message in my other blog, by Joel C. Yuvienco, who brought attention to his excellent research article, viz., "Knowledge Management of Folk Knowledge: Harnessing the Power of Social Software Applications." Who Cites Joel

I googled, to find if there are any Knowledge Management (KM) applications in the Web for Multifaith & / or Multicultural Transactions. I did not find any!!! May be I did not reach the deep Web.

Whereas, I did find in Joel's article, some useful applications, with both generic and specific approaches. I am sure this article will be a harbinger and hopefully lead to focused KM applications for cultural, religious, and spiritual areas of human concern.

However, googling for KM resources in Multifaith & / or Multicultural areas brought out some interesting citations (relatively speaking), including the following:

User profiling on the Web based on deep knowledge and sequential questioning, by Silvano Mussi, Expert Systems, Volume 23 Page 21 - February 2006 [fulltext, free content, courtesy: Blackwell Synergy]

Capturing Interest Through Inference and Visualization: Ontological User Profiling in Recommender Systems, by Middleton, S. E., et al., In Proceedings of K-CAP2003, Sundial Beach Resort, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA. (2003) [fulltext, free content, courtesy Eprints]


Tools for filtering the World Wide Web exist, but they are hampered by the difficulty of capturing user preferences in such a diverse and dynamic environment. Recommender systems help where explicit search queries are not available or are difficult to formulate, learning the type of thing users like over a period of time.
We explore an ontological approach to user profiling in the context of a recommender system. Building on previous work involving ontological profile inference and the use of external ontologies to overcome the cold-start problem, we explore the idea of profile visualization to capture further knowledge about user interests. Our system, called Foxtrot, examines the problem of recommending on-line research papers to academic researchers. Both our ontological approach to user profiling and our visualization of user profiles are novel ideas to recommender systems. A year long experiment is conducted with over 200 staff and students at the University of Southampton. The effectiveness of visualizing profiles and eliciting profile feedback is measured, as is the overall effectiveness of the recommender system.

Indigenous Knowledge: Making it personal, by Racelle Kooy
Extract: In my experience, Indigenous Knowledge and spirituality are one and the same, or at the very least enmeshed. I consider spirituality as the most sensitive area of IK. This is where the sacred and secret meet. The spiritual aspect of Indigenous Knowledge is literally about the beginning (cosmology) and the end (life after death)

tacit vs. explicit theories: the impact on our thinking and 'theorizing', Mentor's infosophy: socio-technological rendering of information details

BRICKS - Building resources for Integrated Cultural Knowledge Services
The BRICKS Community is the aggregation of a large community of users, composed of content providers, art professionals, and art researchers, as well as students, citizens, tourists, etc. in order to build a consensus, sharing knowledge and service on Digital Content.

Come Xplore - Complore is a Social Research Collaboration Tool to connect the researchers in diverse fields around the world

Reporting Private and Public Religion, Joyce Smith, 2000

Multicultural Knowledge Management

Google: "Managing "indigenous Knowledge"

Looking in Google, for the above resources, was with the intention of getting the whole picture. KM Best practices on the whole, include, software, middleware and mindmaps, as well as, ontologies, taxonomies, etc. These perspectives will facilitate in bringing a holistic approaches in building both the necessary infrastructure and infostructure. My work, herein, is simply based on the professions' call to look, find and capture so that knowledge may be shared among all the concerned. Hopefully, we can attempt to reduce the digital divide in today's information society.

What sort of taxonomy will help this type of KM?
Consider the options:
a) A few bloggers are busy around the globe with Intercultural Knowledge Management
b) Tags that help in Jots - km

A course for the information professionals at DRTC Banglore, in collaboration with Indo-German eGurukul on Digital Libraries

KNOWLEDGE ORGANISATION AND RETRIEVAL
1. Ontologies, Classification
2. Controlled Vocabulary
3. Indexing and Searching
4. Semantic web technology

A journal from a related field viz., Information for Social Change

A new book has a chapter, Globalization, internationalization, and indigenization of pastoral care and counseling by Emmanuel Y. Lartey. See all the contents:
A time of ferment and redefinition / Nancy J. Ramsay -- Pastoral theology as public theology : revolutions in the "fourth area" / Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore -- Power and difference in pastoral theology / Christie Cozad Neuger -- Globalization, internationalization, and indigenization of pastoral care and counseling / Emmanuel Y. Lartey -- Ferment and imagination in training in clinical ministry / Loren L. Townsend -- Methods in pastoral theology, care, and counseling / Joretta L. Marshall -- Contemporary pastoral theology : a wider vision for the practice of love / Nancy J. Ramsay. See the book details at Amazon

Another book, published in 2005, is also relevant. Reclaiming Culture: Indigenous People and Self Representation, by Joy Hendry (Palgrave Macmillan). The contents of the book are: 1 Museums are transformed; Aboriginal tourism and that elusive authenticity; Indigenous or alter-native forms of cultural display; Language and formal cultural education; Arts, architecture, and native creativity; Land claims, archaeology, and new communities; International links, cultural exchange, and personal identity; Conclusions : what we can learn [Details: www.bn.com]

P.S.Dear ALL: This is a friendly call to the KM gurus, guys and knowledge workers, and the Digital Natives: Just-in-case you know or have come across some reference, institution or research project in the above discussed area, please email it to me. I will cite you as the source of that information. I am sure that bloggers / blog-graphers at the KnowledgeBoard will get this message. Trusting to hear from you immediately. THANKS.

Save the Time of the Godly: Information Mediators Role in Promoting Spiritual & Religious Accommodation

by Dr. Mohamed Taher.

This is dedicated to Professor Emeritus A. Neelameghan, a mentor of my mentors, and whose single outstanding contribution to the Multifaith world in an electronic document, OM Information Service (OMIS), overshadows all that is cataloged in the present article.

Abstract: Information mediating – as practiced by the library and information professionals -- links information seeker with information source and helps in saving the time of the faithful. In the age of Internet, librarians are trying their best to satisfy the information needs of the users, with vast variety of resources (both print and online). The article highlights spiritual & religious questions received at the library’s reference desk. Web-based reference transactions are increasing the use of libraries and providing seekers with greater access to resources. Moreover, Internet helps enhancing skills and competencies as well opportunities for learning this sort of mediation. While most librarians may or may not know that they are a valuable source for fostering spiritual & religious accommodation, there are, nevertheless, many ways to illustrate this social good performed by the information mediators. This paper provides samples of best practices and facilitate in assessing return-on-investments.

This article appears in Knowledge Organization, Information Systems and other Essays. K.N. Prasad and K.S. Raghavan (eds.) Professor A. Neelameghan Festschrift. New Delhi, Ess Ess Publications, 2006
See: Detailed contents

For a reprint, send an email: mt2222 at yahoo dot com