Evolving spatial representations to support innovation and the communication of strategic knowledge

Abstract

Computer-based representations of strategic knowledge in the form of maps can be used by specialists from different fields to maintain the coherence of their work, whilst at the same time providing scope for individual creativity. In collaboration with manufacturing organisations, we are evolving tools and techniques to facilitate the elicitation and mapping of their strategic knowledge. The tools that we are developing can be used to communicate this knowledge across distributed teams of engineers, designers, and brand managers. The tools integrate and maintain the coherence of activity among these groups, and also facilitate the apprehension of new knowledge. We describe how this can be achieved using a mixture of spatial hypertext and reconfigurable information spaces. These tools provide scope for gradually building context, while simultaneously enabling exploration of detailed knowledge.