Title: The poetics of knowledge sharing: putting Aristotle to work in the enterprise

Authors: Stephen W. Smoliar

Addresses: 601 Van Ness Avenue, Unit 74, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA

Abstract: Advances in repository technology have not |solved the problem of knowledge sharing|. The problem does not arise from the |noun-like| properties of |knowledge| but from a failure to grasp the |verb-like| qualities of |sharing|. While this appears to advocate process-centric approaches to knowledge management, the verb-based strategy actually has origins that precede knowledge management and goes back to the time of Aristotle. Furthermore, they are based not on Aristotle|s investigations of logic but on the principles of his Poetics, which may be read for instructions for making knowledge sharable, and which may be applied to both work practices and supporting technologies.

Keywords: knowledge sharing; imitation; work practices; narrative; Eureka; distributed cognition; learning; innovation; communication; web-based communities; knowledge management; Aristotle.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2007.011473

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2007 Vol.4 No.1, pp.26 - 39

Published online: 30 Nov 2006 *

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