By re-reading the articles, I was able to make some sense of them despite the jargon. What I found was overly repetitive and explained in a way that with generous editing could be much more pithy.

Finally, the article titles don't really match their content.

I don't mean to attack Mr. McKay personally, but I think he is at the very least writing in the wrong publication and with too free a hand.

Sincerely,
Dovid Gross

Bain McKay responds
Being a very humble writer of sorts, compared to English majors who make writing their expertise, I am pleased to get feedback that can improve my writing skill--a never-ending journey. So this letter represents good feedback and is a great way to grow my knowledge about writing for various audiences. By being a better writer, I can do a better job of communicating what I have to say...and as you know, I have a lot to say.

Jargon is a key cornerstone of Knowledge Management. More importantly, it's a key underpinning to learning and leveraging knowledge. Interestingly enough, a taxonomy is a jargon vocabulary of shortcuts that experts use to iconify conceptually classified meaningful patterns, so they can cover ground very quickly--that is,more productively. It's part of the abstraction process we all go through as we learn a discipline and abstract it into anchors and hooks to tie associated concepts together into internally visualized patterns of 7+/-2 scoped hierarchies. Joseph Ledoux, in his latest book on the brain, The Synaptic Self, nicely explains the physiology of what takes place as we neurochemically burn-in synapses that glue the associative patterns we learn.

The language of Knowledge Management
Permit me a short story, by example. I remember when I joined Cognos Corporation in 1984 as Development Manager for End User Tools, and later that year taking on the responsibility of Artificial Intelligence Research Manager where I was managing a significantly advanced AI research project with four leading universities and Canada's top research institution, National Research Council.

After attending my first meeting, my VP (Bob Minns) and I walked back to the office. When we got back, we prepared to discuss our findings on the first meeting. My first comment was, "Isn't it just like academics to use some private language that no one else understands. Do they do it to make themselves feel important? Why can't they speak English?" To which Bob immediately shot back: "Get used to it. That's the language of AI."

I often look back, jousted by good strong feedback. And I continue to reach out for feedback that normalizes my language to something a little more consumable by the audiences for which I write and speak.

KM grows up
And here we are, too many years later in all too short a timeline, buried knee-deep in Knowledge Management, clouded by infoglut. It is a Knowledge Management which is growing-up well beyond computing science and linguistics into the deep pastures of cognitive science, including philosophy, psychology, group dynamics, quantum physics, classical physics, mathematics, genetic engineering, nanocomputing, brain science, learning theory... and, oh yes, some computer science sprinkled in as to taste. And the language is very strange indeed to the uninitiated. However, until you grasp the language, you can't wade through the mountains of invaluable research and papers essential for tying all these disciplines together using the General Systems Theory approach of cognitive science.