Second focal point (see for first one at my last blog post) of my lecture at Lucknow University was “Role of communication in expansion of knowledge”. Communication is defined as exchange of thought, feeling or ideas or signal from source to target in form of symbols. Such definition does not help me to judge quality of communication in human group. I feel communication in broader sense. For me war is a platform of communication to communicate power (like game). Difference in platform of war and game is that, in war generally third party (participatory observer) remains absent (hence is free from rule). I feel economic system (like capitalist or socialist) or system of governments (monarchy or republic) also as a platform of communication. Their power can be judge through 14 point criteria.
For exploring role of communication in expansion of knowledge, I need to define communication in such a manner that it may help to identify more suitable communication system for knowledge creation and expansion, can differentiate good and bad (or no communication in spite of exchange of ideas). I want to explain why I want to extend definition of communication (from those used in communication theory) through an example. In every communication there is source, medium and destination. Destination decodes symbols sent by source and send feed back. From engineering point of view one can think that by lowering noise level, one can get good communication system. But what will be quality of communication if destination has prejudice and it does not believe on source? I want to discuss communication in human system and not in system of electronic devices, which do not have prejudice (I never want to say prejudice in bad sense; I feel it as base of individuality).
In my opinion quality of communication depends upon accommodating other’s ideas (different) in own framework with due respect. Respect is crucial component for good communication. Respect does not mean agreeing or obeying others idea or information but it depends upon four believes- (1) No idea or information is justified without its context (2) Each idea (which has evolved through some sacrifice and effort) is justified in some context (3) Disagreement provide opportunity of validation (4) validation update ideas to be more powerful. Thus good communication provides a chance to validate idea in broader context.
Without respect communication is possible. Such communication belongs to gossip, managerial or information passing category (according to purpose). For communication with purpose of knowledge creation (research) and expansion, most important thing is respect for each other. For good communication three things requires- (1) common area between communicators (2) differences between communicators (3) respect for each others. A good communication gets power from its accommodating capability of different opinions. I can recall here a shloka श्रद्धावानं लभते ज्ञानं (one who has respect can attain knowledge).
Platform (medium) has also an important role in communication (especially if purpose is knowledge creation (research) and not the managerial). Power of platform depends upon – (1) which type of content (like textual, pictorial, audio, video or any other) can be presented at platform and how content type strongly associated with purpose (2) power to reproduce the original content for verification (3) hierarchical presentation of content so that it may extend from generality to specialty at different level. (4) handling of feedback (5) number of participants to be accommodated at platform (6) equal opportunity to each participant (7) auto filtering of insincere ideas (8) opportunity to redefining and modifying ideas (with keeping original intact) (9) un disturbed by leaving participant platform (in this way allowing time to participant to think). (10) power to send confusing ideas to sender for clarification. (11) link of coordinated summarized opinion with its opinion of originators (12) capability to organize and filter contents according to need (13) providing opportunity to participants to concentrate on some part of discussion. (14) allowing mutual discussion without disturbing the whole.
We can judge traditional platforms of knowledge expansion and creation (research) like class room, seminar, conferences, workshops etc. on the basis of said criteria. It may be important to judge present platform (at 0Space) in respect of above 14 criteria. Some platforms may be strong in some area while weak in other area. Creation of an integrated platform by combining above mentioned platform may be useful for knowledge expansion and creation.
In short I can say that for expansion and creation of knowledge, we need a platform which can coordinate not only thinking and its expression (with documentation) but can coordinate ideas emerged in isolation of individuals with validation in group.
Next time “challenges before teaching community”.
