What is a Knowledge Base Anyway?

In the past, knowledge base projects have been confined to survey texts, with their broad overviews of the "state of the field." At one level, this project can be seen as a continuation of that tradition, which is why we suggest, as a starting point: "think of it as a book." The big difference is that this project has, from the beginning, been designed for the Internet, with its vastly less expensive and more powerful information storage and retrieval capabilities. The core elements of this project are totally beyond the reach of conventional book publication. However, it is still helpful, as a starting point, to think of it as a book.

The Knowledge Base as a Book

Book Chapters

The book chapters correspond to the main topic headings in the Full Essay List or the top level "file folders" in the Browse by Categories List. These include:

• The Meaning of Intractability,
• The Costs and Benefits of Intractable Conflict,
• Underlying Causes of Intractable Conflict,
• Parties to Intractable Conflicts,
• Intermediary Roles,
• Culture and Conflict,
• Social Psychological Dimensions of Conflict,
• Interpersonal/Small-Scale Communication,
• Large-Scale Communication (The Media),
• Fact Finding,
• Escalation,
• Limiting Escalation/De-Escalation,
• Power,
• Principles of Justice and Fairness,
• Intermediary Processes (including extensive materials on negotiation, mediation, peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding),
• Peace Agreements,
• Assessment and Evaluation,
• Theories of Learning and Change

Chapter Sections

Each chapter contains many "modules" on particular topics: some have 10, some have 50. Each module is comprised of:

• A core essay (2-12 pages long),
• Additional resources, including annotated Web- and print-based:
  • Conceptual materials,
  • Examples,
  • Case studies
• Audio-visual materials, including audio "essays" drawn from over 100 hours of interviews with the field's leaders talking about their experiences working on transforming difficult conflicts,
• Teaching materials,
• Links to other Knowledge Base essays,
• Information about organizations working in the field (forthcoming)

More than a Book: Multiple Editions and a Continuously Growing Set of Materials

The database structure employed by the project makes it easy for us -- and users -- to create dozens of different editions (versions of the Knowledge Base), each focused upon the differing needs of people in particular conflict situations or interested in learning about particular problems or processes. There are (or soon will be) editions focused on

• public policy conflicts in the U.S.,
• inter-group conflicts in the developing world,
• negotiation and mediation,
• conflict transformation,
• peacebuilding, and others

While the materials in each edition overlap to some extent, each draws on a subset of the materials in the full Knowledge Base. Also, different versions use different examples, and/or links to different associated resources. Some editions will take a class- or textbook-based approach, with Knowledge Base elements sorted according to academic topic. Other editions will take a situational approach, in which links to Knowledge Base elements are placed within a case study narrative. While the basic editions will be created by the project team, a user customization module (coming by November 1) will make it possible for conflict educators (and other users) to create their own versions of the system designed to meet their specific needs.

Knowledge Base as a Lego Building Block Kit

Now that you are used to thinking of the Knowledge Base as a book, try another metaphor. Think of it as a Lego Building Block Kit.

Lego Building Blocks

Lego sets typically come with a bag of different types of building blocks (flat "base plates," big blocks, smaller blocks, wheels, windows, etc.) In addition, Lego kits include plans showing a number of different ways in which the blocks can be combined to produce very different structures with different purposes. Usually, there is one "primary plan" -- for example, a fire station -- but then there will be plans for building other things -- for instance, houses or trucks or fire-engines -- from the same set of blocks. When the structure to be built is complicated, the directions will show you how to make smaller components that fit into the final structure (the fire engines that go in the fire house, for example). In addition, creative builders can use the kits in completely new ways, creating things without any plans at all.

Knowledge Base Building Blocks

The Knowledge Base can work for users in much the same way. Some of the top-level essays are big, basic essays that cover a broad range of ideas (think "base plate"). On top of that go essays which are more specific but still cover a fair amount of ground (think medium-sized Legos with four or six "bumps"), and on top of that are ones that are even narrower in focus (like the littlest real "blocks"). And then there are the "decorative elements" -- the shutters, the steering wheels, the ladders, the hoses. These are equivalent to our inset quotes, pictures, and audio. In both cases, the basic structure can be built without them, but they add considerably to the basic structure by their inclusion.

Also like a building block set, the essays (which we have actually called "building blocks" as we have written and assembed this) can be put together in many different ways to build many different things. Someone interested in the de-escalation of a very violent inter-group conflict will be interested in building a structure that contains different blocks than someone interested in preventing a major meltdown in a congregation over the ordination of homosexuals.

References

Each building block will have a list of references, broken into seven categories (there are also tabs for these categories at the top to make them easier to find).

• The first two categories are Web-based and print-based (books and articles) resources that examine the underlying theoretical idea(s) in more detail.
• The next two categories are Web and print-based resources that provide real-world examples of the concept being discussed. So for an essay on de-escalatory gestures, there will be several essays about gestures that have been made in various settings, what happened, and perhaps with an analysis of why.
• When available, the next category includes audio-video resources relating to the topic. These resources include both segments from the audio interviews we did specifically for this project, as well as links to other audio and video products available on the Web -- for instance, from National Public Radio's vast collection of excellent news stories, which are available online for free.
• Also when available, the next category contains links to teaching materials related to the topic.
• Finally, the last type of additional information is comments. We have not started to put comments in yet, but we have quite a few useful comments that came out of the two excellent conferences that were held in the process of developing this Knowledge Base. These will be put into the system in the coming weeks.
• We are also hoping to collect lots of comments from YOU, the users. Every page has a link at the top, which allows you to send us your comments on the article or on the system as a whole. Our dream, which we hope will occur, is that users around the world will post comments about how these essays do or do not relate well to their experiences. This could turn into a dialogue between the author and people from different places around the world. We hope you will help us make this happen!

Editions

Once they are written, all the building blocks, examples, and even references will be coded so that they can be selected by the computer to fit into different editions. Like the Lego set that has a "primary plan," the Knowledge Base will have a "default" plan that will allow users to systematically move through the entire set of essays and examples. But it will also have alternative frameworks or plans that are built in response to users' answers to "diagnostic" questions about who they are and what they are interested in. The result is that a student interested in public policy conflicts in the United States would get a different set of materials than would a person from an NGO in Somalia doing peacebuilding work.

Searching and Browsing

Each user will also be able to break away from the suggested resources to link to any of the other resources in the system. Alternatively, users can just browse or search the system on their own, picking and choosing building blocks according to their own interests, without using the computer's plans at all. This "browse" function will also allow users to build their own customized manual or "reader," as is discussed in the section on "Building Your Own Knowledge Base 'Book'."