Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The problem with "tacit/explicit"

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Harold Jarche links to this post pointing to a problem with the longstanding distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. "Now I expect all of you are reading this and thinking 'Well, I am quite clear on the difference between tacit and explicit'. Yes, you are clear, but at least 50% of people within the KM field will be equally clear, and will disagree with you. Therefore you will be communicating at cross-purposes... That is why you will find no reference to tacit and explicit in the body of the ISO KM standard." Well I don't think the ISO is the final word on a debate that is at least 2500 years old. I do think there's a pretty clear distinction between 'can be expressed in words' and 'cannot be expressed in words', which I believe is what was the intention of the terminology.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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