Wednesday, December 14

A New Language to Describe the Knowledge of Experts

As I get sucked into conversations about simulations with developers and researchers, both here in the states and in other countries, I am increasingly aware of the influence of the languages of several different communities.

Critical words and phrases are coming from computer game design, project management, computer programming, nutrition, engineering, TQM, environmentalism, systems theory, even golf coaching.

There is a new pidgin emerging - a new language for capturing domain expertise.

At the highest level, it ties together systems with interface with story.

Below that, it involves constructs like transformers (things that turn one resource into another), communities, units (autonoma with competencies and will), mapped spaces (from geographical to conceptual), interface design, perspectives (how different people see the world), and more detailed views of work (from producing widgets on one end to problem solving processes and innovation on the other).

If people are interested, I will share more detailed notes with this community.

2 comments:

jay said...

Clark, isn't this just an aspect of our increasingly interdisciplinary world? I don't think I'll call it pidgin, for it enriches communication rather than taking it down a notch.

Clark Aldrich said...

To be honest, Jay, I just like writing the word pidgin.

I agree with you.