ON STRUCTURED KNOWLEDGE GATHERING Keywords: knobit [pronounce like knock] - elementary unit of knowledge, knowledge bit; knowledge, education,

knowledge management.

Preamble: Article focuses on the delivery and gathering of knowledge as well as on benchmarking of knowledge possessment. We are quickly moving towards information society where useful as well as useless information is available at ever-increasing rate. People, who are determined to keep themselves on top of that growing global knowledge pile, have daunting challenges ahead of them. With the increasing content capacity of the society there is an everincreasing need to understand and interconnect available informational fragments. This is a route where information combines to knowledge, which ultimately matures to wisdom. However, paths to wisdom involve steps of undefined size and of unknown number rendering it extremely hard to calculate the sum of someones knowledge.

State of affairs Can you get a well-paid job in NYC if you graduated from any Eastern European University? Youll be much better off by having the Harvard diploma instead. Prestige aside, the reasoning here is simple - your employer thinks you got more at Harvard than you may have had at other places. He is basing that assumption on previous collective experience and is most likely correct. But he does not take into account that we are rapidly moving into era where the same information is available to

everybody. Even the nuts and bolts how to educate properly are presented essentially to every one looking for it. Call for knowledge-loaded individuals is loud and is increasing with technological progress, lessening the likelihood for a small number of celebrated universities to answer the demand. As a matter of fact there are a number of able people who have been educated at some point in their life, but now are hidden behind the blind of general ignorance. How to identify their talent and expertise? Sure, there are exams, theory tests and various other ordeals to assess the invisible. You study, fear, sweat and - boom - that was just not your day! These things happen. Bad luck, sorry, youre out. While theres no simple way to prove yourself or to display the knowledge you have been inflicted with there is hardly a method to recognize these qualities in others. How to overcome the discrepancy between the needs of society and accessibility of knowledge?

Knobit Have you ever observed a hen? Hens gather crumbs and with time you can see how they grow bigger the more they devour. Lets use a liberated metaphor and compare us as humans with hens when we act in the same way while gathering the bits of knowledge (knobits). Except there is no reason to measure the size here not even after a passionate lecture. However, you did receive something cerebral and if we could assess the obtained scope, lets just register it. Standard knobit consists of knowledge-tests with fitting tutorials. If you prove that you got the message (a knobit) you have demonstrated agility of thinking and you have captured the knowledge. If you missed the knobit in the first instance but are still interested then you need time or repetitions. The sharper you are the shorter is time you need to obtain a knobit.

By marking knobits down as your property from now on we are imminently having an overview of the consistency of the gathered knowledge - a knowledge-field. The more you learn the more of these tiny certificates you have for the description of this imaginary space. If there are omitted regions of knowledge needed for certain tasks you can fill the missing parts with ease by learning the lacking knobits. The look at the computerized multidimensional image of a

knowledge-field would surprise most of us. We can see what you have learned even if you do not remember all the past details or the topics, but you have demonstrated the ability to capture the essentials at some time in your life. We can even describe the knowledge-field items which are old and which have been re-tested or acquired recently. Looking at separate chronological layers or flattening the image gives us powerful tools for measuring knowledge. It helps us to make assumptions about one's wisdom and enables simple knowledge-based benchmarking. Most importantly, you will have a self-image of your knowledge field you can get start to improve. Now ask yourself - did you get your first official knobit? Did you get the knobit of Knobit?

Adaptation and a deeper look Isnt that amazing that not until recently a single science fiction writer ever wrote about something resembling internet, although rough biological model of it in the form of brain has been part of every one of us? It might have been too obvious. Or it might prove that an acceleration of technological progress has reached the level where it moves with the speed close to the one of imagination.

To compete successfully in that wildly changing environment of future you need to adapt at supersonic speed. You need to sniff at new trends, useful or more efficient techniques and tools at lightning speed to stay at forefront. Unfortunately, there are no really useful tools to keep up with your constantly changing knowledge needs.

The Knobit Concept We suggest an alternative approach for judging and assisting the accumulation and spreading of knowledge. Roughly speaking, most of human knowledge can be split to elementary knowledge particles (knobits). Knobit can be viewed as a single issue, point or event, which can be related and understood as a whole. Knobit consists of identification, explanation and pool of corresponding questions. The questions facilitate and test the understanding or passing of the knobit. Knobits reside on internet and are written adhering to standard, using public toolset(s). Knobit's identification specifies precise field of knowledge current knobit relates to. Identification of knobit would also carry information about the level of preferred user, scope of knobit, individualization reference, language and the author of the knobit. For example, there would be a knobit for 3rd grade about multiplication of basic numbers, geared towards pupils with more (or less) developed visualization skills. Or knobit for 6th grade telling the story of the life of Ramses II, pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, for visually impaired. We are talking about knobits suited for every possible occurrence. Success assessment of passed knobits is binary - whether you understood it or not. You can always repeat or find an alternative knobit, which would work better for you, of course.

By passing the knobit the transaction is being done on selected authority server. Means for knobit-field storage vary from individual knobit-card to generalized databases.

Knobits and education Would you picture a small child starting to explore the world via knobits? Can you imagine picturesque Every expansion knobit of childs be multidimensional knobit-field? passed would

recorded which makes it readily available for later retrieval. Everhuman need to remember forgotten things would be solved by visualizing ones personal knobit-field and promptly retrieving that very knobit you used to learn the topic in the first place. Click-andknow, as simple as that! Even more, knobits are small - everyone can grasp small and simple things. Knobit assortment gives flexibility to the (self-) educational process allowing to adjust to individual liking. Lets not debate on the subject of auditory, visual or other types of perceptional inclinations among people - if needed one can implement these methodological aspects. What about giving a chance to describe the same topic to an artist, mathematician or a self-educator? As a result there would be different approaches for the same particulars we regard as correct knowledge. Accordingly these methodological approaches will multiply the benefit if we give people a choice. Certainly not all approaches are good, but in time the best ones will settle out as preferred choice amongst users. As mentioned, knobits can be collected in a controlled environment as well as without supervision. In case of latter, persons passed knobits would be marked differently and he or she could attend test anywhere to officialize individual study.

Knobits and Business Knobit concept can be effectively applied to economy. Employer can objectively assess relevant knowledge of prospective employee by matching his or her partial knobit-field against knobit-set required for particular position. Furthermore, what about studying the knowledgefields of your companys workforce in time-line and introducing new knobits tactically in the right time? Routinely arranged internal companywide trainings can be administered and tracked, comprehension can be improved to the level desired. In knobit concept, companies themselves would be knobit-sets. In other words, all core and supplementary processes, work instructions, employee skills and work habits can be described as a knobit-set. By gaining a new method or skill, employee of that company would possess new knobit for that company. In order to compete, the company must master rapid assimilation of newly acquired knobit into other employees knobit-fields.

Writing of Knobits By setting certain standards and provided easy to use toolkit in the form of freeware, anyone can write a knobit. Since multitude of different explanation paths exist for every topic in the book of learning, great many are needed. Openness further helps to take advantage of the intellectual potential available in the border-free information society.

Certifying of Knobits The need would arise for Knobit Approval Authorities, which would operate, similarly to Patent Offices. The concept from science journalism, known as peer revision can also be utilized. The knobit would get approved if it is useful and contains novel teaching angle, whatever it may be.

The Knobit Net Why would one want to write a knobit? Setting up The Knobit Exchange or Knobit Net anyone can write a knobit; if certified it will be listed and can be bought and sold for micropayments or given away freely, up to the author. Schools, institutions and companies would pay for knobits passed by their people. We feel it would be worth of sharing the wealth created via quicker learning with the author of the knobit. On the other hand, individuals could use all the knobits for their private, unsupervised studies for free.

Conclusion We believe implementation of Knobit concept will help people to transform the process of gaining knowledge into a more tangible and pleasurable experience. It will also level the playing field of learning between different people, by letting everyone to improve their knowledge at individual pace and by setting personal goals. The Knobit concept can facilitate effective knowledge distribution amongst experts as well as for common people. It would help individuals and companies more easily to adapt to changes while retaining productivity. Finally, Society. Nolvak, R. Port, K. we hope Knobit concept will help to proceed from

infrastructure-building Internet Age to brain-powered Knowledge