1. From Information Management to Knowledge Creation
IRAS
From Information Management to Knowledge Creation
Welcome everyone.
Windhoek, August 2003
Barbara Paterson – Transboundary Mammal Project

2. Overview The Transboundary Mammal Project
Fulfills Technical
Requirements
Knowledge
Representation
Natural
Language Based
Supports Knowledge
Creation
I am going to give you a brief introduction to the transboundary mammal project, its aims and objectives and results to date. I will then briefly demonstrate the information system IRAS itself. The main part of this presentation will be to demonstrate the reasons why I chose this particular format, that is hypermedia. And to explain the potential of IRAS to make the transition from an information system in the traditional sense towards a knowledge management system.

3. The Transboundary Mammal Project
National Strategy
Country wide vision,
targets & general strategy
Regional vision and targets
Neighbouring
countries
Co-operation
Communication
Project Aim: To link local, national and transboundary strategies for selected endangered and high value mammal species
IRAS has been developed as part of the objectives of the transboundary mammal project. This project aims to link local, national and transboundary levels of the management of high value species, focusing on those which occur in the transboundary area of the Caprivi region.
The idea is to support the development of a national vision for each species which can then be communicated to the local management as well as be shared with neighboring countries to form part of regional, transboundary vision for what van perhaps be called the regional meta population of each species. The Information system IRAS is intended, as we will see later, to support these communication processes.
local vision, targets & specific strategy
Local Management

4. The Transboundary Mammal Project - Objectives
Transboundary Collaboration
Species Management
Plans
Decision
Support System
Prototype
Species Overviews
Information System
The project has five objectives, that is
To compile comprehensive species reports that give an overview about what is known for each species.
To then develop Species Management Plans for each species based on this information.
To examine the potential of an electronic decision support system to aid decision making and to develop the prototype of such a system.
To create an information system to hold all the information on each species in computer format and make it more accessible.
To enhance collaboration with the neighbouring countries on issues of species management.

5. Progress to date IRAS Wildlife Translocations Transboundary Workshop
Draft Species Management Plans for Buffalo, Roan, Sable, Tsessebe
Wildlife Translocations
Buffalo, Roan, Sable, Tsessebe Reports
IRAS
The first phase of the project ended in June and progress has been made on several fronts:
Reports on Buffalo, Roan, Sable and Tsessebe were compiled by a consultant who also
developed draft species management plans for these species. These first drafts are supposed to help MET develop a national strategy for these species and the buffalo SMP has already been revised once, the Roan, Sable, Tsessebe plan is currently circulating for first comments.
The problem of game translocation has been identified as one worth looking into in terms of developing a computerized tool to support decision making.
An information system has been developed, that is IRAS,
and a transboundary workshop took place last year between Namibia and Botswana, which was very successful and where the representatives of both countries identified a list of transboundary issues and agreed to work on these together.
(Start IRAS)

6. Non-linearity of hypermedia documents requires explicit structure
Table of Contents
Overview Buffalo:
Present distribution in Namibia
Limiting factors
MET vision
Objectives
Strategy
As you probably know, hypermedia documents, such as websites or IRAS are a web of information units, pages, which are connected by links. Unlike printed documents, hypermedia documents are not linear and not sequential. They can be visited in flexible order, which means the user can look at info in the order most appropriate to him. But because the author has no control over the the order in which the user accesses information each information unit must be self contained. It cannot be expected that the user has already read certain information before reading the current page.
One can however provide a certain amount of guidance to the reader by suggesting a certain list of pages and thus providing structure and orientation. The table of contents are examples. But other guides are possible, e.g. an overview over buffalo which would pull out just the necessary info to give s.o. a quick insight into the main issues.
The information units are all self contained and can be strung into which ever order is best. For land use planning for example a guide could be put together that pulls out all relevant pages from all the species.
Different guided tours could be designed with different levels of detail and presenting information in different order depending on the targeted user/reader group.

7. Why a Hypermedia System?
Supports Knowledge
Creation
Natural
Language Based
There are four reasons:
A hypermedia system like IRAS, fulfills all the technical requirements for an information system in wildlife management.
I found that it is necessary build a system that can to represent knowledge, rather than bits of data
Because hypermedia uses text as its main medium as well as graphics and images etc. It is very well suited to represent wildlife related knowledge.
It not only serves as a representation of such knowledge, but facilitates the creation of new knowledge.
I would like to go into each of these points in a bit more detail. So lets first have a look at the technical requirements for information systems in wildlife management:
Knowledge
Representation
Fulfills Technical
Requirements

8. Technical Requirements for Wildlife Management Information Systems
IRAS
Compatibility
Ease of use
Affordability
Inclusiveness
Co-ownership
WWW standard
As easy to use as a website
No special software required
An information system must be compatible with systems that are already in place. That is very important. You can have the best system if it is not compatible it is basically useless.
It must be easy to use
Considering the usually very tight budgets, it must be affordable.
It has to allow for the many different aspects that play a role and that make wildlife management such an inclusive process.
It has to provide co-ownership to people, allow people to get involved and make contributions.
IRAS does fulfill all these criteria.
IRAS by following Internet standards is highly compatible,
that is also why it is so easy to use and self explaining.
It can be viewed in any of the browsers currently available and no special software is required
Any digital document or file can be linked
And in terms of co-ownership, unlike written documents, that are somewhat final by the time they are printed and put on the shelf, Hyper documents can be updated and modified constantly and improve the more people contribute to them on an ongoing basis.
Any e-document can be linked
Reader as author

9. Why a Hypermedia System?
The next reason why I think hypermedia is the right format, is that I think we need a system that can represent knowledge adequately rather than a data storage and retrieval system.
The first thing that has to be clear in this context is that data, information and knowledge are distinct entities, although the words data and information, and information and knowledge are often used interchangeably.
Fulfills Technical
Requirements
Knowledge
Representation
Compatibility
Ease of Use
Affordability
Inclusiveness
Co-ownership

10. Learning Perception KNOWLEDGE Old knowledge Forms basis of subjective
new knowledge
Learning
subjective
INFORMATION
Perception
Data are the building blocks of any information or knowledge system. They provide objective facts and observations, but are quite useless on their own. It is through individual perception that people put them into context and interpret them. Thus providing meaning. This process of providing meaning to facts is a highly personalized and subjective one, based on core concepts that we use to organize and order the things we perceive. This process is also called learning and thru learning we create new knowledge. What is important is that new knowledge is always created based on old knowledge, which we need to categorize and evaluate information.
It is important to remember that not only are data, information and knowledge distinct, they also demonstrate the transition from objective facts to subjective meaning.
DATA
objective

11. Put these data into meaningful context
Species Documents
Draw on observations
Put these data into meaningful context
Interpret data based on experience and
Knowledge
Are subjective
The species documents that were compiled draw of course on data and observations, but they go well beyond this, by putting data into a meaningful context and interpreting them based on experience and knowledge, which is always subjective.
That’s why we need a knowledge representation rather than an information processing tool.
Require knowledge representation
rather than information processing tool

12. Why Hypermedia? Natural Language Based Species Documents contain
subjective interpretations based on knowledge
expertise
The third reason why I chose hypermedia is the emphasis on language and text.
Compatibility
Ease of Use
Affordability
Inclusiveness
Co-ownership
Knowledge
Representation
Technical
Requirements fulfilled

13. Wildlife Management Knowledge
Quantitative and
qualitative models
Predictive
Prescriptive
Descriptive
Decision support
systems
Knowledge in Wildlife management can generally be divided into 3 categories that is
predictive knowledge, prognosis and forecasts of what will happen in the future.
Prescriptive knowledge, that is when you as experts, make recommendations about what should be done.
And descriptive knowledge which is the most common one describing what is, interpreting and understanding or explaining phenomena.
For each of these there is an appropriate format:
quantitative/qualitative models help make suggestions of what will be
Decision Support systems help deciding what should be done
And text documents, tables, and graphics help describe what is.
Despite our efforts to quantify important ecological processes to support theories in simulation model form, by far the larger body of what we know can only be expressed qualitatively, comparatively and inexactly. That is why most of the knowledge in Wildlife Management is expressed in text documents.
And looking at the great reliance of print media the word processor is the de facto knowledge management tool in wildlife management.
Text Documents
Word Processor is de facto
knowledge management tool

14. Language based representations
Formal representations
Multiple definitions
Ambiguous
Implicit meanings allowed
Robust
Single definitions
Precise
Implicit meanings not allowed
Brittle
Language based representations of knowledge have the advantage that they allow multiple definitions and ambiguities as well as implicit meanings. All this makes them very robust, that means there are various ways of saying something without sacrificing comprehension, in fact it increases comprehension.
Formal representations like mathematical models allow only single definitions, which makes them much more precise. They also don’t allow implicit meanings. This precision comes at a price. Such systems are very brittle and highly specialized. While you can use text to represent almost anything, a mathematical model will fall apart at the slightest inconsistency and small errors will cause comprehension to fail.

15. Strength of Hypermedia
Multi-linear
User can access information in the order most appropriate for his/her purpose
Each information chunk is self-contained
Associative network enhances comprehension
The strength of hypermedia over text documents lies in the fact that
it is multi linear and a reader can access info in the order that is most appropriate for the current purpose
This requires that each chunk is self contained. This in turn allows that the same information units can be re-used to provide larger contexts at different detail level.
It has been found that hypermedia enhances comprehension, because it mimics the way we store and retrieve information through of association.

16. Why Hypermedia? Great generality Robust Allows implicit meanings
Supports Knowledge
Creation
Natural
Language Based
Species Documents contain
subjective interpretations based on knowledge
expertise
The last reason why I chose hypermedia as the format for IRAS is because it not only provides an adequate representation of existing knowledge but also a medium for the creation of new knowledge.
Compatibility
Ease of Use
Affordability
Inclusiveness
Co-ownership
Knowledge
Representation
Technical
Requirements fulfilled

17. Munich Model of Knowledge Management
Representation
Knowledge
Generation
Research
Strategy
Adjust
Adaptive Management
The Munich Model describes Knowledge management as a cyclical process through which knowledge is represented in some form in order to be applied and communicated, which in turn results in the generation of new knowledge.
Knowledge creation is an ongoing dynamic process in which new knowledge is constantly created based on existing old knowledge.
This cycle of knowledge management corresponds with the adaptive management model. Adaptive management acknowledges that it is uncertain what policy or practice is "best" for the particular management issue. A strategy or plan of action is developed based on the best available scientific knowledge provided by research. The implementation of this strategy is constantly being monitored and evaluated in order to reveal the critical knowledge that is currently lacking so that both research and strategy can be adjusted. In other words new knowledge is created by applying and evaluating old knowledge.
Because Hypermedia represents information as a web of self contained information units, information can be presented and viewed dynamically. Showing different contexts and providing different perspectives which leads to new perceptions.
Monitor
Implement
Knowledge
Communication
Knowledge
Application

18. Technology Organisation Knowledge Management Human Society
Knowledge Management is not only a question of technology
Technology
Organisation
Knowledge
Management
But Knowledge Management is not only a question o appropriate technology. Technology is in fact only one of three equally important factors, that is the organizational background, and the humans that are part of the knowledge management process. Knowledge management is always embedded in a social context. Any attempt at knowledge management that does not recognize this will invariably fail.
In our project context that means that if we tried to freeze the contents of the species documents into a static representation, in order to force consensus. We would either never finish the end product, because people have different perceptions or we would have a result that only represented the consensus of some but excluded others, and would probably end up not being used.
Human
Society
Adapted from Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl

19. New problem perceptions
Non linearity of hypermedia allows dynamic debate instead of static consensus oriented information system
Dynamic representation of current knowledge on species management
ideas
reports
New perspectives
New problem perceptions
comments
Because IRAS is a web of information, not only can what is already in there be viewed and placed in different order, but new information can be entered at any time and in any format. e.g. ideas, memos, reports, comments or presentations on issues related to information in IRAS should be linked to the existing information. In order to place it into context but also to make them available to the whole reader community.
This will be done via an dedicated systems administrator or curator whose task amongst others will be to edit the information into standalone units and to ensure that they fall within the overall ministry policy.
This way a dynamic representation of current knowledge on species management will emerge and be communicated between experts. Which will lead to a change of perspectives and new perceptions.
presentations

20. Why Hypermedia? Natural Language Based Great generality Robust
Allows implicit meanings
Supports Knowledge
Creation
New knowledge is based on old knowledge
Allows user participation
Provides forum for dynamic debate
Knowledge
Representation
Species Documents contain
subjective interpretations based on knowledge
expertise
Technical
Requirements fulfilled
Compatibility
Ease of Use
Affordability
Inclusiveness
Co-ownership