31 Knowledge Quality Measurements

neonix

neonix

Jedi Council Member
31 Knowledge Quality Measurements
http://management.simplicable.com/management/new/31-knowledge-quality-measurements

by Anna Mar, August 15, 2013


High quality knowledge is priceless and low quality knowledge is often worthless. In other words, quality is key to the value of knowledge.

The quality of knowledge sounds like something that might defy measurement. After all, it's a subjective judgment to say that one chunk of knowledge is higher quality than another chunk.

Nevertheless, it's possible to estimate the quality of knowledge from a business perspective. Quality knowledge is fit for purpose.

The definition of "fit for purpose" varies by business. The first step in measuring knowledge quality is to set quality criteria. The following 31 criteria are a good starting point.

1. Accessible
Knowledge isn't fit for purpose when it's hiding under a rock. High quality knowledge is accessible to a wide audience.

2. Available
Knowledge that's highly available (e.g. a 24x7 website).

3. Fast
Knowledge access that's fast (e.g. a fast website).

4. Integrated
Knowledge that's integrated into your organization, processes, initiatives and conversations.

5. Diverse
Knowledge that's varied and mixed (e.g. a news article that represents both sides of the story).

6. Accurate
Knowledge that's precise (e.g. a newspaper that tells you exactly what happened).

7. Credible
Knowledge that comes from a credible authority (e.g. market data from a reputable firm).

8. Reliable
Knowledge that's highly trusted.

9. Unbiased
Knowledge that's free of logical biases.

10. Flawless
Knowledge that's free of errors (e.g. factual errors).

11. Fearless
Communicating knowledge opens individuals to criticism. It's common for individuals to hold back their best ideas for fear of being criticized. High quality knowledge doesn't hold back unconventional ideas.

12. Wise
Knowledge that holds valuable insight.

13. Fresh
Knowledge that's new, updated or remixed.

14. Relevant
Knowledge that's relevant to your business.

15. Actionable
Knowledge that's actionable in your business context.

16. Verifiable
Knowledge that can be verified (e.g. a theory of physics that can be observed in nature).

17. Connected
Knowledge that's highly connected to other knowledge (e.g. links in a website).

18. Social
Knowledge that can be socialized. Socialization helps to improve knowledge and encourages its use.

19. High Social Velocity
Knowledge that everyone is talking about has more value (e.g. a viral news story).

20. Adaptable
Knowledge that can be adapted to new uses (e.g. an engineering idea that can be adapted as a marketing idea).

21. Eloquent
Knowledge that's well stated.

22. Literate
Knowledge is represented as language. High quality knowledge is represented as high quality language (e.g. writing style, grammar, spelling).

23. Aesthetically Pleasing
Knowledge is visualized. High quality knowledge is aesthetically pleasing (e.g. a website that doesn't hurt your eyes).

24. Explorable
Knowledge that's easy to explore (e.g. a well laid out website).

25. Searchable
Knowledge that can be discovered with search tools.

26. Secure
Knowledge that's secure (e.g. privacy and confidentiality is ensured).

27. Maintainable
Knowledge that's easy to maintain.

28. Retained
Knowledge that's retained for as long as it's useful.

29. Sustainable
Knowledge that uses minimal resources (e.g. storage, bandwidth, short meetings).

30. Assessed
Knowledge that has been assessed (e.g. peer review of a paper).

31. Continuously Improved
Knowledge that's continually improved.
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My comment (neonix):
You all have to learn how to be professional journalist, scientist, marketing specialist, public relations specialist, researcher, psychologist and simply be friendly to other people.

You don't have to read all books about it, You just have to know what mistakes you shouldn't do.
 
I think the problem with these kind of criterias is that they're often quite subjective. The most important criteria for knowledge is objectivity, i.e is it true or not. If it's not objective, it's false and dangerous, no matter what. I shortly commented the first 10 qualities down below, hope this helps:

1. Accessible
Knowledge isn't fit for purpose when it's hiding under a rock. High quality knowledge is accessible to a wide audience.

There seems to be a law governing man, where accessibility to knowledge is limited by design for people depending on their level of development: Gurdjieff called these as exoteric, mesoteric and esoteric circles.

2. Available
Knowledge that's highly available (e.g. a 24x7 website).

Availability doesn't have nothing to do with quality, more like opposite; just look mainstream media and their capacity compared to independent alternative news sites.

3. Fast
Knowledge access that's fast (e.g. a fast website).

same as above.

4. Integrated
Knowledge that's integrated into your organization, processes, initiatives and conversations.

World is full of people and organizations which base their actions on fully integrated but totally false knowledge.

5. Diverse
Knowledge that's varied and mixed (e.g. a news article that represents both sides of the story).

Nope. If truth is mixed with lies it becomes less objective. The middle ground fallacy is very apparent for example in news reports of Israel's atrocities against Palestine.

6. Accurate
Knowledge that's precise (e.g. a newspaper that tells you exactly what happened).

Yes. This is objectivity, if it tells the events as they happened or close enough.

7. Credible
Knowledge that comes from a credible authority (e.g. market data from a reputable firm).

World is full of people and organizations who are "credible" but are promoting lies. Their credibility/authority is what attach authoritarian personalities to uncritically follow them.

8. Reliable
Knowledge that's highly trusted.

Same as above.

9. Unbiased
Knowledge that's free of logical biases.

This is objectivity too.

10. Flawless
Knowledge that's free of errors (e.g. factual errors).

Same here.
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edit: clarified comments.
 
neonix said:
My comment (neonix):
You all have to learn how to be professional journalist, scientist, marketing specialist, public relations specialist, researcher, psychologist and simply be friendly to other people.

You don't have to read all books about it, You just have to know what mistakes you shouldn't do.
Click to expand...

Indeed! Personally, I found "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie as very valuable and useful in this respect. Amazing how this book is still relevant, or even more so, since it was first published in 1936. Good manners never go out of style. :cool2: :read:
 
This morning a colleague emailed me from a professional meeting he's attending "there are lots of people who asked after you, but I don't have their names". My answer naturally was "thanks for the very useful information".
The quality of knowledge is also related to the quality of the person embracing that knowledge, how that knowledge is integrated, used, and made in connection with other manifestations of knowledge. You will see lots of people having useless "factoids" about stuff, but they don't know about how that factoid fits with the bigger picture, or how one can arrive to that factoid from facts and experiences etc. For instance, there are some who know the decimals of Pi in the decimal system up to whatever decimal.... so what? Does that impair any knowledge, or is it just the storing of bytes of data in memory?

There is also the matter of the level of interpretation at which the knowledge operates, or in other words, at which levels of interpretive complexities is the eventual knowable known, to which modern knowledge professions fail miserably.
 
I think the title and the article quoted by neonix is somewhat misleading. It conflates knowledge with resources offering knowledge (the meaning of the word changing from sentence to sentence). And it's more about knowledge as a commodity rather than knowledge in terms of something which is understood.

However, those measurements seem good as a rough starting point if you're thinking about things like websites offering information, for rating the resource, rather than rating the knowledge it offers in itself.
 
neonix said:
6. Accurate
Knowledge that's precise (e.g. a newspaper that tells you exactly what happened).
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One of the best laughs I had all day...

Also, in general seems to be talking about information and not real knowledge.
 
Yes, with some exceptions, I think that list had more to do with selling comfort in believing one's preferred flavor of propaganda.

One can believe a lie, and when somebody challenges it, take their example and fail it on numerous fronts using that list, and then comfortably return to sleep. Support materials for the cognitively dissonant.

When it comes to the really important, powerful bits of information, I find I use an almost opposite set of rules of thumb, for which there are exceptions of course, but in general...

-It is hard to find knowledge.
-It is hard to refine it.
-It is hard to metabolize it.
-You will be attacked for trying.
-It is rarely well integrated into our ponorized world by its very nature.

Also...

-The more people who openly believe something, the more likely it is to be flawed.

But rules of thumb are just that; Good for grabbing hold of things, but we need our eight other digits to poke through any given clump of dirt.
 
Psalehesost said:
It conflates knowledge with resources offering knowledge
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This is how normal people think. They judge a book by its cover.


Woodsman said:
Yes, with some exceptions, I think that list had more to do with selling comfort in believing one's preferred flavor of propaganda.
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Of course, this type of fact sheet is use in business area to sell more, but you can use it in any other area of life. The fact that the marketing is used mostly to sell bullshit, doesn't means that it can't be used for good purpose.

One can believe a lie, and when somebody challenges it, take their example and fail it on numerous fronts using that list, and then comfortably return to sleep. Support materials for the cognitively dissonant.
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I think you describes repression mechanism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_repression
You have to know how to challenge lies, because if you do this inappropriate some people fall into repression, and some don't believe you.
-It is hard to find knowledge.
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You have to develop your intuition by not having your mind mess up with wrong ideas. You have to learn how to clean (not to empty) your mind using nature (forest, pond, river, animals), and you need to have a lot facts in your head to lay the puzzle And this forum is full of knowledge.
-It is hard to refine it.
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Learn how to be journalist.
-It is hard to metabolize it.
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You have to a apply small doses.
-You will be attacked for trying.
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Yes, but you can use small steps technique. Or search your listeners elsewhere.
 
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