I-Space

This framework is a useful tool to analyze the effectiveness of knowledge management in business. But it can be also applied to your personal knowledge management system.

Framework provides 3 key dimensions:

Codification: how structured & formalized is the knowledge
Abstraction: how generalized is the knowledge
Diffusion: how widely is the knowledge shared

Examples:

Public knowledge (textbooks, articles) → Highly codified & widely diffused

Personal experiences → Poorly codified, specific & not diffused

Scientific theory → Abstract, codified & diffused among experts

Applying i-Space to businesses KM & PKM reveals common knowledge management problems:

Codification

	Business	PKM
Too little	Poorly documented projects and methods Tacit knowledge drain Hard to reuse knowledge across projects	Problems with information retrieval Difficulties in exploring meaningful connections Challenges in sharing knowledge with others
Too much	Overly complex instructions that are hard to support And they're getting outdated too quickly	Rigid workflows & friction Organization for the sake of organization Reduced serendipity

Abstraction

	Business	PKM
Too little	Project learnings are too specific Limited information reuse Harder to share knowledeg within a team	Hard to see big-picture connections between ideas Hard to apply knowledge to new situations Limited ability to synthesize new knowledge
Too much	Frameworks/methods are too abstract to be practically useful in different contexts Hard to reconstruct specific cases	Loss of nuance and personal context Generic top-level synthesis Hard to reconstruct a thinking process

Diffusion

	Business	PKM
Too little	Knowledge silos Knowledge remains trapped within specific groups	Lack of feedback / idea testing ground Limited exposure to diverse perspectives/opinions Missed opportunities for collaboration
Too much	No curation protocols. People share everything Information overload Harder to find relevant things	Reduced depth of engagement with ideas Oversharing Audience capture

Wrapping up

The I-Space allows you to meaningfully balance all 3 dimensions to make knowledge accessible, reusable & practical.