[This page was part of an early version of Cosma and is here for historical/archival purposes.
Please visit these pages to see the current version Cosma   home |  outline |  index.]
 

It is crucial to understand the structure and function
of communication systems in order to improve them.
[Learn more about Communication Systems Models.]
 
This is particularly true of their knowledge level.
[Learn more about Communication Hierarchy.]
Unfortunately, as it is becoming increasingly critical
to do this, it is also becoming ever more complex.
 
The goal of this project is to elaborate the thematic
structures for describing key factors in communication
systems and the relationships among them.
 
Projects are a critical level of analysis that has been
selected as the central unit of definition to represent
communication systems at the knowledge level.
 
Today knowledge systems or projects usually exist within
complex, continually changing distributed environments.
Therefore their continuation depends upon establishing
a system to obtain resources to support continuous
delivery, change, maintenance and expansion.
 
The challenge is to maintain balance between the human,
knowledge and media systems. However, this is difficult
because projects are dynamic systems with many complex
relationships that change over time.
 
At the present time, these pages contain pointers to starting points and outlines of how this problem is being approached. Essentially, these are the beginnings of a coding system that will be applied to specific case studies of projects documented by D-Projects.
 
In addition to a framework developed through the study of specific projects (Hopper, 1993), other writings about communication systems (e.g. Gordon, 1975, Blake & Haroldsen, 1975), the levels of communication systems and specifically the knowledge level will be used to explicate and elaborate analysis of knowledge systems.