Melbourne Students & Learning - Research Publications

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    Context entity analysis: using public domain knowledge to build information infrastructure
    MCCARTHY, GAVAN ; JONES, MICHAEL ; VINES, RICHARD ; LEWIS, ANTONINA ( 2012)
    The purpose of this paper is to surface in an explicit way the challenges of corporate self-knowledge. The emphasis is on how corporations, and the individuals that comprise them, provide public access to authoritative records and information that adequately explains who they are, what they do, how they function, and the ways important organisational narratives evolve through time. The paper reports on a case study completed by the University of Melbourne’s eScholarship Research Centre in December 2011, for a Division of a Victorian Government agency, Australia, the Department of Primary Industries (DPI). The study utilised a research and analytical methodology called Context Entity Analysis (CEA). CEA provides a means through which knowledge resources generated using narrative techniques, such as reports, journal articles, books, or websites can be utilised to create open complex networks of entities that more closely mirror the multiplicity of what actually happens, both within corporations and at the intersection between corporations and the citizenry.
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    Linking agricultural extension, decision support systems and context: implications for knowledge management practice
    VINES, RICHARD ; Sudholz, Carl ( 2012)
    There exists a substantial knowledge management challenge for organisations with responsibilities to mediate public interests. This challenge relates to the means by which knowledge assets are managed to integrate a hierarchy of knowledge in a continuum from the micro-level (individual), group (institutional / organisational), formal (peer-authorised) to the macro-level of focus (societal norms). The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of a specific program – FarmPlan 21. FarmPlan21 was introduced within the Australian state of Victoria to promote the uptake of whole-farm planning practices. Through this initiative an objective has been to mediate private and public interests related to the integration of commercial and sustainable land management practices. The analysis of FarmPlan21 is presented through the lens of two different knowledge hierarchies – one for a farmer and one for an agricultural extension officer engaged within the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.
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    Cities, human well-being and the environment: conceiving national regulatory knowledge systems to facilitate resilient knowledge, knowledge based development and inter-generational knowing
    VINES, RICHARD ; MCCARTHY, GAVAN ; Kirk, Chris ; JONES, MICHAEL ( 2010)
    In this paper, we discuss the idea of resilient knowledge and how the concept of knowledge-based development might be conceived as scientific discipline, and on what basis. Discussion is presented in two sections. In the first section we explore the idea of the epistemic loss of knowledge. We suggest this type of knowledge loss occurs where there is inadequate preservation of the knowledge necessary to explain the context, structure and meaning of information through time. We provide a brief overview of an emergent approach that could address this problem – an approach called contextual information management. In the second section, we document examples of how this new approach might be harnessed to create a framework for a (national) regulatory knowledge system. We draw upon one particular case study: the conception of quality standards within the Victorian Community Sector. By extrapolation, we suggest these ideas could well have wider applications – for example, the harmonisation of regulatory standards across State and Commonwealth areas of jurisdiction. By extension, it is suggested the focus of regulatory interventions should not be on compliance per se, but on creating a shared context between Government, stakeholders and citizens to support the dynamics of problem solving, knowledge acquisition and what we call evolutionary possibility.