Dear all,
one thing that is always a concern in any community is how to retain knowledge and ideas generated by debate and discussion. I have spent some years in the community informatics arena, and this is a well-known problem.
What it comes down to is this. Interesting, sometimes long discussions occur about topics like "what is an episode", "age", "confidentiality" and so on. Many good points are made, and there may even be a consensus view reached due to the discussion. Then a new discussion occurs. What is lacking is a summary/précis of the material - a synthesis if you like. I suspect that most discussions which generate 50 pages of email could be summarised in about 2 A4 pages. Now, there are various technological attempts to help with this sort of process, such as Wiki and other online document modification systems. However, I have never been convinced that the best way still isn't to get a good human brain on the job, to produce a summary the old-fashioned way - by reading and thinking! The kind of document we are looking for is something ranging from an FAQ entry, to up to say 5 pages of detailed description; it would then be added to the online knowledge pages of the community.
My proposal is therefore that for each substantive discussion on a topic of interest, that an editor be found to produce a simple textual summary of the problem, arguments, and conclusions (or lack thereof; and reasons for that) which could then be incorporated into the openEHR website. Appropriate attribution for the editor and discussants would of course be included. This growing knowledge-bank would become an invaluable resource. Another kind of information we often get from clinicians (and technical people) is "use-cases" or "scenarios" - a description of how some process really works in their experience.
Note that there might not be a 1:1 relationship between a mailing list thread and a knowledge page - there are pearls of wisdom all over the place. However, a lot of raw material could I think could be turned into a decent 2-pager with a only couple of hours' work.
In concrete terms, here is how it could work:
- someone self-nominates as an editor of a topic for a knowledge or use-case page; it might be an expert in the subject, or a complete generalist who happens to be good at synthesising expert debate into expert knowledge
- they would generate a first draft, which would be put on a drafts section of the knowledge pages or use cases area of the website (doesn't exist yet)
- they would solicit comment and rework as necessary
- the final version would be posted in the relevant part of the website
Of course, nothing is ever "final" - the idea is to make later debate and thinking more efficient, as well as to capture domain thinking in a form that can be used by implementors. No heavy process would be imposed - anyone could submit a first draft and stop there if they wish. However, the editor would be encouraged to take the process through, from start to delivery; openEHR will just handle the details of putting the information on the website.
The first step I suggest would be to generate a list of possible topics for knowledge pages, use cases or other FAQ material - by going through the discussion archives, which are available online in thread- and date-indexed form. Perhaps 10 topics would do initially. Other sources of thought like hallway discussions and standards meetings arguments should also be considered.
Any takers?
- thomas beale
