The Knowledge Organization

💩 Querying data is hard. All pages have either the same or unpredictable attributes. Getting all high-priority features or all customers due to renew the next month is nearly impossible.

Most single-purpose work management tools are, basically, hierarchical networks. Tool vendors understand they need the best of all worlds to foster collaboration.

So we need both horizontal and vertical connections as well as the ability to handle structured data. Sounds pretty much like…

A single generic hierarchical network is capable of holding all the knowledge of an organization. So why aren’t these networks common?

The most ubiquitous structure is a strict vertical hierarchy.

Unfortunately, popular ≠ the best. The strict hierarchy made sense in the real world: a book can only be on a single shelf in a particular room. However, the restrictions of physical objects should not apply to abstract knowledge.

Is there a way to combine structured and unstructured knowledge, vertical and horizontal connections?

💎 The structure is flexible. The knowledge architect is free to create as many or as few tables as needed and connect them in the way it makes sense to the particular organization. As organization evolves, she creates more tables and adds more relations.

💎 Structured and unstructured knowledge is mixed. You set feature priority, but you also write specs. You advance deals through a pipeline, but also take meeting notes. Hopefully, digital whiteboards and interactive embeds will also be welcome — one day 🤞.