From Publishing to Knowledge Networks: Reinventing Online Knowledge Structures

Citation

Barker, P. (2004), "From Publishing to Knowledge Networks: Reinventing Online Knowledge Structures", The Electronic Library, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 288-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470410541750

Scientific investigation provides a primary mechanism by which new information and knowledge are discovered. However, the sharing and dissemination of the fruits of scientific research are not without their problems. This book explores some of the issues involved in moving from paper‐based dissemination mechanisms towards the use of online knowledge structures. The material in the book is organised into four basic parts. These deal with:

1. 1.

   The application of information technology (IT) within the domain of science publishing.

2. 2.

   The characteristics of scientific knowledge infrastructures.

3. 3.

   The structure of scientific knowledge itself.

4. 4.

   Some of the implications of using IT in science.

At just eight pages, the first part of the book is quite short. Its primary purpose is to provide a brief history of writing/publishing. It also introduces the objectives of the book and explains basic terminology and definitions.

The second part of the book explores and discusses the characteristics of scientific knowledge infrastructures – both paper‐based and electronic. Of the four sections that make up this part of the book, the first two are mainly analytical in approach. The first of these undertakes a theoretical analysis of traditional infrastructures (essentially, the publication of scientific journals) and also explores the impact of IT on the objects, processes and stakeholders involved. In the second section the author describes an empirical analysis of the “emerging” knowledge infrastructures (such as electronic journals, digital libraries, collaboratories, bulletin boards, and so on). The third section supplements the previous two by providing some additional “visions” of possible future developments. The final section of this part of the book provides a synthesis of the findings of the previous ones. This is used to identify five sets of characteristics of Web‐based knowledge infrastructures: mode of interaction, structure of knowledge, presentation, governance and technology.

The third part of the book is by far the largest and deals with the structure of scientific knowledge. It is organised into four basic parts. The first of these addresses “objectives” – the need to be able to develop a conceptual model of scientific knowledge that identifies different types of knowledge, their properties and the relationships between them. The second section considers the relevant theoretical foundations – it takes into account a variety of factors including the work of Bertrand Russell, Hume, Kuhn, Popper, Nagel, Dubin, Bunge and others. The third section then outlines an object‐orientated model of scientific knowledge. This involves defining an appropriate primitive set of “elements of knowledge” – these are comprehensively described and discussed in some detail in the subsequent (and final) section of this part of the book. The seven essential elements of knowledge that the author considers are concepts, statements, theories, problems, frameworks, data, methods and projects.

In the fourth part of the book the author describes an “information systems cybrarium” that he has been developing. Essentially, the cybrarium is intended to be an Internet‐based collaboratory for the domain of information systems (IS). Within his cybrarium, the author claims to have implemented some of the ideas and concepts that are described in the previous parts of the book. It was designed to provide an online environment for knowledge management, synthesis, dissemination and evaluation. According to the book (pp. 188‐189), the IS cybrarium can be accessed at the University of Southern California's Web site at the following address: http://cybrarium.usc.edu. Unfortunately, I was unable to open this Web page and a site search for “cybrarium” did not return any relevant hits. Even the links from the author's home page at USC (www‐rcf.usc.edu/∼hars) did not work. I found this very disappointing!

Overall, I found this book both interesting and useful – even though I could not access the online cybrarium. I also believe the book makes a valuable contribution to its field. However, having said this, I did find a significant number of “irritating” spelling, typographical and grammatical errors. There were also quite a few mistakes in the references – some were completely missing from the reference list while others were “out of order” and some were often incorrectly cited in the body of the text. Obviously, correct citations to the existing literature (both paper‐based and electronic) are an important aspect of knowledge management that this author seems to have overlooked!