Rip mix & (l)earn: the future(s) of KM

rip, mix & (l)earn: the futures of KM...

richard kingpaul maharg

presentation

Richard:– Innovation– More than the law– Democratic

knowledge– What or who you

know– KM as catalyst

Paul:– Two modest

proposals– Medieval KM– Information

visualisation– KM transformation?

Managing Partner KM Conference, London, April 2008

• Lawyers tend to start from what they know or want to know: the question they should ask is, “what exactly do we want to influence?”

• What clients expect is changing as lawyers’ relationship with them moves from a principal-agent model to one of partnership

• Need for a focus on R&D

innovate to succeed


• … it’s also about the business of law

• How do we improve our processes?

• KM professionals will need to be facilitators who drive learning on the job

it’s not just about the law...


• Blogs and wikis will change the way lawyers value and see knowledge

• Personalised knowledge on the desktop – myspace – argues for a buffet approach to knowledge rather than a fixed menu

• KM professionals will no longer control the creation and organisation of knowledge

the democratisation of knowledge-sharing


• In a law firm in a modern economy, is social capital more important than intellectual capital?

• Where are your experts?

it’s not what you know, but who you know


• Who is closer to innovation of the mind than you?

• Skills of the champion become critical

KM professionals as a principal catalyst of change


two modest proposals...

1. KM has a ancient lineage we can still learn from

2. KM’s future digital toolset must be more embodied and intuitive – for clients as well as lawyers


manuscript writing: the early context, pre-12th century1. Materials

– Wax tablets– Tally sticks– Paper– Parchment or vellum

2. Forms of writing– Different hands, thickness of line,

height of letters– Early medieval scripts included scriptio continua –

theexperiencewasratherlikereadingthisnottoodifficultthougheasierifyoutryreadingunderyourbreathalsocalledsubvocalisationwhichiswhatalotofscribestendedtodowhenreadingandwritingandofcoursenomodernpunctuation

3. Punctuation– Marks were used at different heights in lines, eg ‘diple’ or arrowhead (for

quoting scripture), hedera or ivy leaf for start of quotations, and 7-shaped mark (end of section)


the 13th centuryscholarly text• Writers used alphabetisation,

arabic numerals, chapter divisions,rubrics, capitals, paraph marks,running titles

• Used compilatio – compilation ofextracts of works of authorityor auctoritas, chosen byhierarchies of compilators

‘The late medieval book differs more from itsearly medieval predecessors than it does fromthe printed books of our own day. The scholarlyapparatus which we take for granted – analyticaltable of contents, text disposed into books, chapters, and paragraphs, and accompanied by footnotes and index -- originated in the applications of the notions of ordinatio and compilatio by writers, scribes, and the rubricators of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.’

M.B. Parkes (1976), The Influence of the Concepts of Ordinatio and Compilatio on the Development of the Book, in Medieval Learning and Literature: Essays Presented to R.W. Hunt, edited by J.J.G. Alexander and M.T. Gibson, Oxford UniversityPress, 66


workinggloss...

1. Primary texturain the central two columns

2. Glossa or commentary surrounded them, sometimessigned with glossator’s initials Corpus iuris civilis, c.1285-99, Berkeley,

University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library UCB 130:f1200:10, http://tinyurl.com/6y5bva


workinggloss...

1. Primary texturain the central two columns

2. Glossa or commentary surrounded them, sometimessigned with glossator’s initials Corpus iuris civilis, c.1285-99, Berkeley,

University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library UCB 130:f1200:10, http://tinyurl.com/6y5bva


gloss structure and effect1. Glossators corrected textura, commented

on sources, added other sources, and discussed hypotheticals

2. Glosses were in constant flux, a better onereplacing a poorer one in the compilation

3. The effect is one of respectful criticism, a dialogue on the page that’s full of information, very mobile, flexible,highly practical, very memorable.


example gloss:Gratian’s Decretals• 3,800 texts or capitulae, broken down into topoi or

distinctiones that posed interlocking sets of questions about legal situations

• Around this complex & lengthy text, a gloss arose:– Johannes Teutonicus, canon of Halberstadt, c.1215– Revised by Bartholomeus of Brescia, mid-13th century, and later

• Memory and understanding of the page is critical:‘the glossed format seems deliberately designed to present memorable variations of letters [...] colours, for each page is unique. [...] Clearly, they were used to form a visual cue to the sort of text with which one was dealing.’

Carruthers, M. (1998) The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric and the Making of Images, 400-1200, Cambridge University Press, 215-16


example of Gratian’s primary text…Now natural law similarly prevails by dignity over custom and enactments. So whatever has been either received in usages or set down in writing is to be held null and void if it is contrary to natural law

So, Augustine says in Confessions, III, viii:[quotation ...]Also, Pope Nicholas wrote to Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims:[quotation]Also, Augustine, in On One Baptism [...][quotation]Also, Gregory wrote to Guitmund, bishop of Aversa:[quotation]Also, Augustine in On Baptism [...][quotation]Also in On Baptism [...][quotation]Also, Cyprian to Pompey in the letter against Stephen:[quotation]Also, to Caecilian, in Letters, II, iii:[quotation]

Thus it is obvious that custom is subordinate to natural law.

Gratian (1993) The Treatise on Laws with the Ordinary Gloss, trans. A. Thompson & J. Gordley, Washington, DC, The Catholic U. of America Press


So it appears that something is possessed not by divinelaw but by human law alone. To the contrary isC.23 q.7c.1, where it says that something is possessed bydivine law. But this is not contrary because it says therethat all heresy may be raised against a claim for restitution. Note that it is not licit for a heretic to possess anything. C.23 q 5 c.35; C.23 q.7 c.1; C.23 q.7 c.2. Also, it may be argued from this text that when there is a claim for restitution, we must ask by what law the claim is made: by an interdict or by the authority of the court. Also, a claimant is obliged to explain the basis of his claim and what action is brought under canon law. X 2.1.15; X 2.3.3, notwithstanding X 2.1.6. The solution, I believe, is that the basis and the kind of action must be given so that the judge can make a decision according to the kind of action. X 5.3.31. Nevertheless, one is not compelled to specify an action, for according to [civil] ordinance the basis alone is sufficient. Cod. 6.33.3. Bar.

Gratian, (1993) The Treatise on Laws with the Ordinary Gloss, trans. A. Thompson & J. Gordley, Washington, DC, The Catholic U. of America Press

example of a gloss...


glosses, web 2.0 & KM• The internet creates new forms of communications & archives• They share many of the qualities of a gloss:

– Links + contiguous information are crucial– Commentary creates community– Marginal texts attach to central

• What is affected? Everything related to KM:– Nature of communication &

collaboration– Archiving & retrieval of knowledge– Textual authority & versioning



Web 2.0 as medieval cross-over…• Blogs as glossed commentary, but much more interactive,

using comment postings, trackbacks, permalinks, RSS.• Wikis as glossae, shifting and constantly amended by a

community of practice.• New forms of reading on mobile platforms, eg PDAs,

phones, etc – eg RSVP: contemporary forms of scriptio continua

• Social software, eg Furl, del.icio.us, Google Earth, Picasa, Flickr, that can develop community

• Webcasts / podcasts for iPods – downloadable as .mp3 files






In these three examples compare: - Graphics - Finding devices - Data organisation - Informational structure


Standard classroom c.1908. Would you like to learn about measurement and volume this way?

Thanks to Mike Sharples, http://tinyurl.com/6bzdgx


Or this way? (Dewey’s Laboratory School, U. of Chicago, 1901), http://tinyurl.com/6onvjp


Would you like to learn about history and town planning this way?


Or by building a table-top town for a social life history project?(Dewey’s Lab School, http://tinyurl.com/59c93q )


Now we can build virtual spaces in virtual worlds…



… or be immersed in virtual spaces that represent the real world…





knowledge should be human & embodied...







what is affected by the digital domain?• Issues central to KM...

– Nature of communication & collaboration– Archiving & retrieval of knowledge– Textual authority & versioning

... and which were so crucial to the development of glossed texts in the thirteenth century.


two modest proposals, and a question...1. KM has a ancient lineage we can still learn

from2. KM’s future digital toolset must be more

embodied and intuitive – for clients as well as lawyers

3. KM has many futures: which will you choose?‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby


the future will happen anyway, won’t it?

‘What scandalized the serious scholar Erasmus (as it fascinated Dürer) was the fact that, not much more than half a century after the first appearance of the printed book, demand had turned it into a product beyond the control of the scholars and specialists. The book had taken over as the transmitter of European written culture, before scholars and educators had had time to come to terms with its power and influence.’

Jardine, L. (1996) Wordly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, Macmillan, 228


This presentation can be downloaded from http://www.slideshare.net/paulmaharg

Richard King,http://www.herbertsmith.com/

Paul Maharg,http://www.law.strath.ac.uk

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Rip mix & (l)earn: the future(s) of KM