Information Management

A major component of IKM Emergent was a critical interest in the artefacts we use to express and organise knowledge resources in contexts of multiple knowledges. This included reflection on the development impact of those artefacts developed and funded by others and support for a number of experiments and pilots by participants in the programme. We continue to develop tools to record and map resources of a wide range of types and origin to support transdisciplinary and cross-boundary interactions.

Our main tool is the Topic Map. This can function as a participatory tool with which to map out key areas of resources which could be applied to the field or problem under consideration, along with the processes and relationships that can support them. It can also work as a navigation tool to organise and display resources which may be relevant to several different fields.

Another area to which we have given a lot of thought is that of metadata. Adequate metadata - that is the information made available about a resource so that people and automated systems can understand what it consists of and whether it may be of value to them - is especially important if one if working in multi stakeholder environments where resources may exist in different languages and forms as well as across and beyond disciplines. The Thematic Search page shows the metadata we keep and the search options it offers.

The development of these tools is explained in more detail on the page about this site

Since the time of IKM, we have also followed a number of development related efforts using linked open data.  We are particularly interested in the potential to develop vocabularies away from their historic roots in very specific expert fields and explore their potential both to investigate and map ideas in multi lingual and transddisciplinary endeavours which aim to involve both expert and vernacular knowledges.