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23 April 2009

Venue: University College London
Roberts Building, Sir Ambrose Fleming Lecture Theatre

ISKO UK (in cooperation with the UCL Department for Information Studies) organized a lecture by David Snowden on the topic of human-machine symbiosis for data interpretation, followed by a panel discussion.

We would like to thank to Conrad Taylor for recording the event and making mp3 available.

David Snowden: Human-machine symbiosis for data interpretation [Presentation] [MP3]

Much work on search, retrieval and interpretation is caught between the Scylla of restrictive taxonomies and the Charybdis of the semantic web. Too much of IT practice is based on the assumption that the human brain is a "limited capacity information processing device" (A-Level psychology text book) and that language has a common structure and meaning. 

In this presentation David Snowden will report on pioneering work on the use of semi-constrained signifier sets, allowing humans to tell and index their own material within a loose structure.  This work enables the pattern basis of human intelligence to be augmented by information processing power, without losing the insights that are essentially human in nature.  The development is based on more than a decade of work in weak signal detection and on overcoming cognitive bias in intelligence and decision support systems. Results will be presented at the seminar.


A devotee of Wagner and of Welsh rugby, David Snowden is also the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the consultancy organisation Cognitive Edge. He describes his work as in the area of naturalising sense-making, seeking to base social science research and practice on natural science. A pioneer in the application of complex adaptive systems theory to a range of social issues, and in the development of narrative as a research method, Snowden's originality guarantees a compelling presentation. Snowden's work extends across government and industry in a variety of fields including knowledge management, strategic planning, conflict resolution, weak signal detection, decision support and organisational development. He holds visiting professorships in the universities of seven countries from Australia through China and Italy to the UK . He was Director of the EPSRC (UK) research programme on emergence in 2006 and was appointed to the NSF (US) review panel on complexity science research in 2007. Previously Snowden worked for IBM where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity. He was selected by IBM as one of six “on-demand” thinkers for a world wide advertising campaign. Counter terrorism is just one of the many other target fields in his long research career.