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Copyright 2014 Rich Ingram Connections Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Everything is connected to everything else, including you too, of course. Richard Ingram, PhD James Madison University [email protected] James Burke I rather liked it. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? Richard Ingram, PhD James Madison University James Burke I rather liked it. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? So I did a Google Richard Ingram, PhD James Madison University James Burke I rather liked it. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? Connections Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? The internet, in its current form, is not designed to support knowledge discovery and improbable connections. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? So let’s think like James Yes, let’s. Euclid alone has looked upon beauty bare Euclid alone has looked upon beauty bare Prime Number theorem Euclid alone has looked upon beauty bare Prime Number theorem They should have sent a poet… ??? ??? Beauty Oracle of Bacon Mathematicians Heritage Erdos Movies Math Poetry Space aliens Poets Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? So what? Ah, the skeptic. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Creativity is just connecting things. Steve Jobs What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? But in just the right way, of course. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas. Donatella Versace What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? Well, not so much a conflict as a complement. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? Originality of thought is often disproportionately affected by infrequent, improbable, or previously undiscovered associations (strength of weak ties). Everett Rogers (paraphase) I think I would refer to this as improbable connections. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet. Werner Heisenberg And often on the basis of fortuitous happenstance. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web What would Edna St. Vincent Millay think about space aliens? Everything is connected to everything else, including you too, of course. James Burke Indeed, connections are all around us. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web The Intriguing Mind of James Burke • • • • Multidisciplinary thinking Creative and innovate thought Motivation for learning Joy of discovery Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Previous Efforts to Build a Burke Web Show video Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web • Allow for creation of new Burke constructs in a manner consistent with Burke’s method, via both discovery and by conscious construction. • Be approachable by a wide audience using simple tools across all content domains. • To the extent possible, use existing knowledge affordances (e.g., current and future World Wide Web, browsers). Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web: Knowledge Discovery and Representation Segaran, Evans, and Taylor (2009) describe the use of two schemes for representing semantic data - microformat and RDFa - which both provide a practical method for end-users to embed Burke-form data into web pages. Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web: Proposed Knowledge Discovery Techniques • Shortest path discovery Following Erdos numbers, Glen Wasson and Brett Tjaden (then of the University of Virginia) developed the Oracle of Bacon (Barabosi 2002). The Oracle, as it is known, offers a lighthearted adventure into finding the degrees of separation between the actor Kevin Bacon and all other actors listed in the IMDB International Movie Database. Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web: Proposed Knowledge Discovery Techniques • Human-directed discovery Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web: Role of Relevance on Learner Motivation Relevance of content to the learner’s own conceptual framework (e.g., connecting to existing idiosyncratic learner knowledge to the content to be learned) is often considered a critical component in effective teaching and learning (Taber 2010). Might such improbable connections spark a young learner’s interest, increasing motivation for learning or joy of discovery, perhaps then moving one to greater study in mathematics or poetry? Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Proposed Effort to Build the Burke Web: Role of Improbable Connections on Creativity Burke (2000) maintains that creativity is the product of serendipity;“[my work illustrates] perhaps the most intriguing aspect of serendipity at work, which shows itself in the way in which history generates the most extraordinary coincidences” (p. 16). Serendipity may be described as the unexpected insight resulting from the juxtaposition of two or more knowledge elements traditionally thought to be disparate – a fortuitous happenstance leading to original thought. For example, penicillin. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Special note on creativity and weak ties The ideas and innovations available to us human beings can themselves be thought of as a kind of network, with some ideas connected to others, clusters of ideas within other clusters, and so forth. So the surest way NOT to have a creative breakthrough is to rely on all the experts you already know, and all the disciplines you're already familiar with. Your best new ideas - and a company's most breakthrough innovations - will come when you tap your weak ties. Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Role of Crowd sourcing Adapting the approach described, Burke constructs could be discovered, identified, indexed, and catalogued into libraries of knowledge constructs based on the work of individual authors as well as associations of authors. These libraries could then be subjected to critical and popular examination and review, enabling learners to discover, identify, combine, recombine and reconstruct original constructs into forms never before imagined, particularly as they relate to self. Collaborative discovery. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Summary The Burke web appears to provide a platform for promoting fruitful serendipity and/or intellectual insight based upon the juxtaposition of disparate elements and/or the strength of weak ties among knowledge elements leading to the discovery of heretofore unrecognized intriguing “imaginative patterns on the web” by novice as well as expert learners across disciplines, both individually and collectively. Ah, yes, the joy. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web Acknowledgements The author is indebted to Patrick McKercher of the James Burke Institute for comments regarding the historical and ongoing development of the Knowledge web (K-web), as well as for more general comments regarding other efforts to develop a semantic web. The author is indebted to James Burke for his support and encouragement in pursuit of Building the Burke Web. Thank you , Patrick. Thank you, James. Interesting indeed.. Thinking Sideways: Building the Burke Web References Available on request Richard Ingram, PhD Educational Technology Memorial Hall 3350D MSC 6913 James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA 22807 [email protected] If you are interested in the Burke web, I’d love to chat. Ah, yes, the joy.
