The following article discusses how ideas developing in different industries slowly spread within communities, using knowledge pathways to make up new innovations. The key element of the article, Walker’s wagon wheel, provides a visual representation on how ideas from different individuals or groups all converge ultimately in the center.

A main example is the Silicon Valley; groups of likeminded, creative individuals tested their ideas, some of which failed and some succeeded, to have a resulting cluster of tech start ups in one location. This is what has become today the home to the world’s largest high-tech corporations.

Of course we need to be aware that these start-up ecosystems evolve greatly. Silicon valley did not remain loyal to solely microelectronics, but it expanded to many things such as Artificial Intelligence, smart connected devices and Industry 4.0. It integrated various kinds of companies, both old and new, to bring integration to another level. From mechanical to the virtual technologies to the software to the hardware, it is a booming platform for companies to share common technologic expertise.

To depict which of those converging ideas can excel in the market is by verifying how technically feasible they are to produce, to what extent is it valuable enough to be a success and the response of the market when presented with the new product. When all these criteria are met, this is what John Bessant calls the dominant design- the big idea which manages to crystallize out the rest.

The innovative process is mostly taking that knowledge and mobilizing it to optimize its potential. To explain this in more depth, we need to understand that mobility is the sharing of ideas from a party or parties to other players in the game. Innovation hence occurs as such; ideas are captured and they are mobilized across parties, so that these ideas can come together to make something upgraded and improved, with more value than what is presently available on the market.

Hence, “Knowledge management”, is what allows us to construct, concentrate, assimilate and deploy such ideas to make innovations. This concept branches out into multiple newly developed platforms that combine both new technologies and social skills to promise the delivery of ideas for their respective utilization.

Though there have been some limitations to developing mobility, some strong principles have been developed in the area. The following are very briefly explained below:

1. Knowledge networks:

Social networks built around knowledge present variations in their degrees of connectivity. Strong ties are those where connections are deeply embedded where actors share a similar outlook and information. But there also exists weak ties; the occasion when new knowledge has to move between networks but has much weaker links to do so.

2. Knowledge connectors:

When different actors enable the flow of information amongst different parties involved in the process, where each party knows something particular that the other doesn’t.

3. Knowledge flow:

The linkage between external sources of information and social connections, where with the help of brokers and gatekeepers the relevance of the knowledge being transitioned is matched to the person it needs to be connected to.

4. Knowledge concentration:

Well-interconnected groups or communities can make deep valuable pools of knowledge.

5. Knowledge architecture:

Managing the balance between the new incoming knowledge with old established knowledge to maintain eithers’ advantages.

However, it can’t be denied that the challenge in the arena remains,

“How do companies incorporate the knowledge attained through networking, and use it to spread it into design and operation of knowledge technology across industries”

That is the open-ended question Bessant leaves us with. For us to further wonder when and what the next big surge in knowledge management will be in the coming future.

That is the open-ended question Bessant leaves us with. For us to further wonder when and what the next big surge in knowledge management will be in the coming future.

However, Eloquens is a developing start-up aiming to put such a concept in one easily accessible platform. It is built around the concept of the “Wagon Wheel”; it doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it enforces it .

Here, knowledge is integrated into one platform, where all users, be it students, researchers or business people, can access it either freely or at a cost. All at an aim to make smart knowledge known and shared globally. The website invites professional contributors from various areas (marketing, finance, real estate, start-ups, venture capital) to share previously attained knowledge through solid tools or models, which they believe can be of some benefit for the searcher.

All in all, Eloquens acts as a tool for knowledge management. It is a way for us to share yet concentrate knowledge, to act as a propeller for future innovation!

Have a look at John Bessant’s “Knowledge as a social process” article on here:

http://blog.hypeinnovation.com/knowledge-as-a-social-process