Towards a model of intervention in knowledge transfer processes

Abstract

The increasing importance of knowledge in our developed or developing societies is creating a need for control and efficiency in knowledge transfer proccesses. Different sciences are moving into the knowledge field as a 'knowledge society', and, therefore, a 'knowledge economy' developes: Psichology, Linguistics, Economy, Sociology, Information Science, Computer Science, and many other. In spite of the thriving disciplinary efforts, there is a need of integrative models of knowlege proccesses —both social and individual at the same time— able to manage social change from the industrial 'information society' to the post-industrial 'knowledge society', and somebody is to take the risk to develope them. The author envisions a future for information scientists as leaders in this task. The paper proposes an ontological definition of information and a functional definition of knowledge; a landscape of integrational and/or competitive steps among the different sciences which are facing the new field of 'knowledge sciences' and the new demands from the 'knowledge society'; and, finally, it proposes a sketch of such a model —with a basic system of concepts—, which ask for an answer for the problems of functionality, adquisition, representation and communication of knowledge from the integrative point of view of optimizing its social transference, which is, in fact, the aim of the modern information scientist. On the other hand, it is proposed that the information professional should focus in specific problem-solving tasks, but such a theorical construction developed by the information scientist might help her/him to implement a systemic and sistematic intervention; avoiding the risk of irrelevancy and of missunderstanding of the complex phenomena involved in knowledge transference.