Unifying Knowledge Creation Process Through Cascading Modes of Communication

In this short paper, we elaborate the concept of Cascading Modes of Communication (CMC) for knowledge creation in social media. Through a review of CMC and Multi-Stakeholder Learning Dialogue (MSLD), the 3 distinct dimensions of knowledge creation processes: the Epistemological, the Ontological and the Communicative, are posited as reference for the analysis of the processes. Each SECI process is framed as a conversion of knowledge along all 3 dimensions. The relationship of Expansive Learning and SECI cycles is then explored. Two previously discussed SECI processes: Boom-up and Slip-down are explained as phenomenon observed in boundary crossing. Furthermore, two new SECI processes symmetric to Boom-up and Slip-down are identified: Boil-Up and Percolate-down, pointing to the pervading tension between tacit-explicit, local-global, and consensus-dissensus knowledge conversion processes. This tension provides a theoretical explanation for the self-sustaining nature underling all knowledge creation process. Thus, the social media scaffold in CMC is to function as boundary objects created to bridge the stages of knowledge creation processes.