Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to askme.com style modules?

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on

Does anyone have a list of knowledge types/categories? I grabbed a list a while back from a head hunter's website. But that was only valid for IT skills or knowledge. More usefull would be a listing of all types of cascading skillsets and knowledgetypes.

If you're asking this question because you think it will have an impact on the module design, then my experience with these knowledge taxonomies is that they're really too generic to be of much use in most practical, concrete situations. Besides which, if we need to deal with this level of detail at all, it will be much later in the process. As long as we design a system that can deal with a taxonomy, it really doesn't matter which taxononomy we have in mind. On the other hand, if you're just asking for your own information, that's a different story. (Unfortunately, in either case, I don't personally have an answer for you.)

Most knowledge is currently transfered by email. Making a system that is as easy as email can be a challenge. Grove is cool, but is simply too difficult for your average computer user.

Again, my experience is somewhat different. While I agree it is hard to design a system that people will use, this often has as much to do with habits and culture as it does with the technology itself. If you build it, they still may not come. But the corellary is that underutilization of a given knowledge sharing technology in a given community or organization doesn't necessarily mean that there is a problem with the technology. For example, there are some organizations that would simply never use web-based bboards, even though this community finds them to be enormously useful.

I think if we stay focused on the kinds of knowledge sharing tools we would find useful in the OpenACS.org environment or other environments with which we are familiar (as a group or as individuals), we'll do OK. We run into danger when we start getting too abstract.