The players hash out their differences over a concept, correcting each other's misconceptions until there is total agreement between the two. Pask suggested that value can be derived from the resulting concept, so maybe it is worth saving. The archive is called an entailment mesh , a knowledge base of public concepts. . . . . . Any group, community, or society is, by Pask's definition, a cognitive system . The community learns from its individual participants, and each individual learns from the community. . .
Ongoing conversations are a means of knowledge construction within such communities. . . . .
There is value to be derived from these conversations, and it is worth the effort to archive it. Enculturation A newcomer can quickly locate the established dogma of a community by taking the time to browse the entailment mesh. One can learn the jargon, the basic concepts, the issues that are most frequently addressed by those who fully engage in the culture. . . Lurking In addition, one can learn a great deal by lurking . It is here that peripheral participants learn the biases, the values and the behavior patterns of the regulars in a practioner community.