[Knowledge] has to be exercised through continual discussion and revision. And it cannot be managed separately from the people in whose heads it resides. That's the reason companies that successfully manage their knowledge focus on putting people in touch not with vast databases, but with other people. Typically, this means putting questions on an equal footing with answers, because it forces those with knowledge to reshape it continually, to fit their colleagues' needs.
Technology roadmaps are gaining acceptance in industry and government laboratories, and now there are signs that the application of roadmapping to the sciences may grow even faster. A "roadmap" is an extended look at the future of a chosen field of inquiry composed from the collective knowledge and imagination of the brightest drivers of change in that field. Roadmaps can comprise statements of theories and trends, the formulation of models, identification of linkages among and within sciences, identification of discontinuities and knowledge voids, and interpretation of investigations and experiments. Roadmaps can also include the identification of instruments needed to solve problems, as well as graphs, charts, and showstoppers.I believe a similar use of roadmaps in the sciences would allow a fresh, positive approach to science to emerge among public officials.
1998/05/13