As opposed to science, "map of knowledge" attempts to map all knowledge, while science focuses on specialized branches of knowledge. Mapping all knowledge gives us the opportunity to develop the whole and special branches of knowledge from interconnection and communication between what was before separate compartments of knowledge. The effect can be likened to that of joining heretofore separate civilizations.
The map of knowledge is a way of collecting different questions and problems into one.
"We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge. This level of information is clearly impossible to be handled by present means. Uncontrolled and unorganized information is no longer a resource in an information society, instead it becomes the enemy." - John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, "Information Society", 1982
Actually, we've started using a map of knowledge approach a long time ago, without realizing it. A teacher of English prepares a collection of useful songs for teaching. A driver prepares a collection of favorite audiobooks to listen while driving on a long journey. These collections are our intimate favorite corners of knowledge which we visit on appropriate occasions, our "Secret Garden". The goal of map of knowledge is to generalize upon this practice and to share everyone's favorites with the world, so that everybody is educating everybody.
"Map of knowledge" approach offers us a chance to organize, connect and unify our knowledge, make it into a system. For example, we're working on "robots". Suddenly, we find that it is a "category", as there is a lot of information on robots. "Robots", in turn, are a part of a larger category. In this way, separate compartments of knowledge are connected. From this connection, a kind of "electricity" flows, as it all becomes illuminated by a kind of light which these pieces of information project upon each other.
The mood in which one should approach the map of knowledge is illustrated by the painting of a Russian painter Ilya Repin of a Russian composer of XIX century Glinka.
"Knowledge is perception of agreement or disagreement of two ideas", John Locke, 1689
I think that "knowledge" is a kind of sexual act between mind and Nature.
"Knowledge" has become a new central resource in the economy, Peter Drucker, 1969
Alvin Toffler: 3 waves in history: 1) the agricultural revolution, 2) the industrial revolution, 3) the information revolution.
Don Tapscott, "The Twelve Themes of the New Economy", 1996 - 1) diappearance of the intermediaries - e.g. traders, political power brokers, 2) Virtual becomes physical, and physical virtual, 3) information and knowledge technologies are becoming the leading sector of the economy, 4) consumers become producers.
Thomas Davenport & Laurence Prusak, 1998: 1) data - facts, 2) information - data from different perspectives, summarized data, 3) knowledge - pattern recognition, discussion of data, 4) wisdom - meta-pattern recognition, introspection, retrospection.
"Dedicated knowledge workers are the persons whose job it is toorganise ‘knowledge work’, in relation with the processes that their colleagues are working on – a sort of knowledge work maestro"
"Other knowledge workers are people who ‘do’ knowledge work: their job strongly involves using information and engaging in knowledge interactions (identifying knowledge needs, sharing knowledge, applying it, evaluating it etc.)"
