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This article is published in journal " ""INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE AND SYSTEMS SCIENCES" (Brief “ISKSS” )
Volume 4 Number 4 . December 2007
auther: feng liu,lingling zhang,jifa gu
Feng Liu1,2 Lingling Zhang1,2* Jifa Gu3
1.School of Management, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, P.R.China.
2.Research Centre on Fictitious Economy and Data Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,100080, P.R.China.
3.Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,100080, P.R.China.
*:corresponding Author
Following the flourish of knowledge economy and accelerated development of internet, various creative applications and new concepts of internet occurs continuously. Witkey mode is a creative mode that utilizes internet to manage knowledge, which is initially discovered and proposed by Liu in China. The author firstly finds functions separation of BBS, witkey mode just originated from one of BBS functions “intellect interactive quizzes”. At same time the author deems times of information totally free-sharing has passed, knowledge，Wisdom, experience, skills also have commercial value through media of internet and can be traded as merchandises, the valuelization of knowledge is an activator for people joining in intellect interactive quizzes. On the above basis, in June 2005, the author brought forward the theory of witkey mode which has drawn high attention of China and abroad media. Several hundred sites entered into the field. In Aug.2007, “witkey” became one of 171 new Chinese words published by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. This article advances definitions of witkey and witkey mode, operation model for business site, analyzes the relations between witkey mode and knowledge management, introduces three creative achievements in the development of witkey mode: new definition of internet, witmap and internet evolution theory. At last, gives introduction on the applications and effect of witkey mode in China.
Keywords: Witkey mode, Internet, Knowledge management, Witmap, Internet evolution, Definition of internet
Seen from aspect of history, the birth of “internet” went through a fairly long process. On 17th Feb. 1753,a famous letter with author signature “C,M” was published in magazine “The Scotch”, which gave a detailed introduction on the structure of “electric communication machine” and method of telegraph transmission and receiving; In June 1837,Britisher Cook gained the patent of “telegraph machine”. In 1876, Mr. Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone. In 1946,the first electronic computer was born in America. In 50’s of 20th century, communication method between computers came out. In 1969, the “internet” got its birth. （Dave Kristula，1997）
From the beginning of this century, the development of internet began to accelerate, various creative applications and new internet concepts came out continuously, such as search engine, e-commerce, blog, wikipedia, RSS, 3G, web2.0, theory of long tail etc. These applications and concepts have relations more or less with knowledge management. It has brought high attention of many experts and scholars in the field of internet and knowledge management on how to utilize “Internet” to manage knowledge .
Witkey mode came out under such background, which is a new creative mode to manage knowledge in internet. The concept was initially brought up in China by Mr. Feng Liu , Liu. From June 2005,Liu began setting up a website http://www.witkey.com aiming to connect sources of experts, fruits of science and technique of Chinese Academy of Sciences with relative problems of enterprises. Under the process of site building, Liu found it was a whole new field to solve problems through media of internet and the solver got paid accordingly, then Liu begun to probe into this field and made further research.
During the process of research, Mr. Liu feng put forward three inter-connected viewpoints on witkey mode: firstly, from 80’s of 20th century, functions of BBS continuously separated, blog, wikipedia etc new internet applications occurred. function of intellect interactive quizzes began its separation from BBS since the beginning of 21st century; secondly, following the maturity of payment method in internet, times of information totally free-sharing in internet has passed. Knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills have their commercial values and can be traded as merchandise in internet; thirdly, the valuelization of knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills is an activator for people joining in intellect interactive quizzes. Based on above viewpoints, in July 2005, Liu advanced the concept of Witkey mode in a discussing article in Chinese Academy of Sciences: A new internet mode that human’s knowledge, wisdom, experience and skills can be converted to actual returns through media of internet. The main applications include solving problems in fields of science, technique, work, study etc. Since Nov. 2005, relative Media in China began paying attention to Witkey field. In Sept. 2006, news reports of CCTV on witkey mode made the concept broadcasted widely. In China sites of Baidu, Sina,, Yahoo, Google etc entered afterward in the field. In Aug. 2007, “witkey” became one of 171 new Chinese words published by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.
The first part of this article introduces the origin and basic principles of Witkey mode. The second part gives a general de ion on the relations between Witkey mode and important academic genres of knowledge management. The third part introduces three creative achievements of witkey mode in its development. The fourth part introduces applications and effect of witkey mode. the fifth part is the conclusion and further research prospect.
Three theoretical foundations of Witkey Mode: discovery of Separation of BBS functions , confirmation on the coming of knowledge valuelization times in internet, knowledge valuelization is the activator for people joining in intellect interactive quizzes.
2.1.1 Discovery of Separation of BBS functions
In July 2005,when concept of witkey mode was initially advanced, one important theory basis is the discovery of separation of BBS functions : when internet BBS occurred since the beginning of 80’s in 20th century, its functions separated one by one into independent internet applications: (Figure 1 )
Figure 1 Separation of BBS functions
News Site originates from BBS function of press eleases.Example:
www.cnn.com, www.yahoo.com.
E-commerce Site originates from BBS function of merchandise trading, which combines afterward with online payment systems in internet and logistics system.Example: www.ebay.com , www.amazon.com .
Blog Site originates from BBS function of release of personal feelings and mood de ion. BBS integrates these information in sequence of time. Blog aggregates information by users. Example: www.blogger.com, www.bokee.com
Intellect Interactive Quizzes originates from BBS function of posting problems in science ,technique, work, life, study etc. to seek solutions or persons capable of solution through media of internet.Example: www.witkey.com www.innocentive.com,www.answers.yahoo.com.
Comments Site (DIGG) originates from BBS function of comments and discussions on latest news and hot issues. Example:www.digg.com
Wikipedia Site originates from BBS function of information edit. Commonly BBS only entitles the right of edit to information poster and site administrator. Wikipedia site opens its right for every visitor to make alteration. Example: www.wikipedia.org .
SNS Site originates from BBS function of integrating users’ registered information, such as contact method, nature of work ,working place ,interests or hobbies etc, which makes it possible for people who have same interests find each other through media of internet. Example: www.facebook.com. www.myspace.com .
Barterer Site originates from BBS function of bartering articles or services in internet. Operation of barterer site needs not the media of third-party payment methods.Example: www.Peerflix.com, www.swaptree.com.
Search Engine originates from BBS function of data and information index. The invention of WEB technique made index technique capable of aggregating data and information from a great number of BBS and eventually develop to search engine. Example:www.google.com
2.1.2 The coming of knowledge valuelization times in internet
Information free sharing is a important element which promotes the flourish of internet. For example, Wiki , motivated by realization of human’s self-worth, makes human’s disorder information into structural free-sharing knowledge. Search engine makes indexes on information and data in internet, people can use the search function freely. News site, e-commercial site, blog site contribute free information to internet continuously. As per theory of knowledge management, it spends much time and cost on the production of knowledge. Knowledge totally free-sharing does not conform to rules of economy and the assumption that human are rational, it will make quality of free-sharing knowledge unable to be promoted to higher level when it reaches a certain level because of self-protection on personal core ability and will hamper the development of internet.
Liu deems that knowledge in internet (all forms of articles, data, answers to questions etc)has its economic value more or less and can be traded as merchandises, which conforms to value rules of economy and is one way for internet to get out dilemma. In addition, following the improvement of internet payment methods, it is possible to mark prices on knowledge, wisdom, ability, experience. Therefore, it has passed the times of information totally free-sharing for internet and entered in the times of knowledge valuelization in internet, the concept that knowledge, wisdom, ability, experience have their commercial value is accepted gradually, which is the important premises and basis for theory of witkey mode.
2.1.3 knowledge valuelization is an activator for people joining in intellect interactive quizzes.
The first foundation for the theory of witkey mode ,“the discovery of Separation of BBS functions ”, confirms that Intellect interactive quizzes are a new field in internet. The second foundation “the prediction on the coming of knowledge valuelization times in internet” gives confirmation that knowledge valuelization will be the characteristic of internet development to next stage. At same time knowledge valuelization has much more close relations with intellect interactive quizzes. Knowledge valuelization promotes people joining in the interactive quizzes and provide high quality knowledge products, on the other hand, knowledge, wisdom, ability, experience can be traded as merchandises. Seen from angle of knowledge management, in intellect interactive quizzes, the process of knowledge valuelization is the process of domination change for latent knowledge.
Therefore, we deem that intellect interactive quizzes separated from BBS functions are a new and unclearly defined internet field. Through research on the field, in July. 2005, we named it “Witkey Mode”
Definition 1 witkey mode : a new internet mode that human’s knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills can be converted to actual returns. Main applications include solving problems in science, technique, work, life, learning etc fields through media of Internet. It embodies the new concepts in Internet “payment according to work and focus on people”.
Through practice , investigation and analysis on sites of witkey mode, Liu traces out operation model chart for business site of witkey mode. (Figure 2 )
In figure 2, we can find that users in site of witkey mode can be divided into two categories. enquirers and answerers. Enquirers post problems and release tasks, and pay for it when they get solutions available; Answerers take tasks and answer questions, when their intellectual products are accepted by enquirer, they get promised payment.
Common operation procedure in witkey mode site following sequence: 1——>2——>3——>4——>5.or in brief proceduce is : 3——>4——>5. (Figure 2 )
The credit is very important aspect in the operation. In order to guarantee smooth trading, witkey sites need to build up credit system and make sure authenticity of enquirers and answerers, enquiries and answers. 
Knowledge has become the primary requisite of production in new economy, its position is just like that capital in times of industry economy and that land in times of agriculture economy (Quinn,1992;Drucker,1993; Bruton-Jones, 2000). Compared with former economy styles, intangible assets are more important than tangible assets（Stewart，1997；Edvinsson and Malone，1999）.Knowledge is power’ is the nature law.In knowledge economy, intellectual capital has become the most important capital of enterprises（D.J.Skyrme，2003）.
Current academic genres and main viewpoints in fields of knowledge management are as follows:School of techniques deems that “knowledge management is just to manage information”, its main research field is knowledge management system（Wiseman，1988; Honeycutt，2000）.
School of behaviors deems that ”knowledge management is to manage human, it focuses on human’s skills, behaviors and thoughts mode( Mr Wang Zhongtuo,2004) and pays attention to latent knowledge management.(Knowledge community, complex network, etc.)(Nonaka, 2000; Karl M Wiig, 2003; Robert M.Grant , 2003;Michael J. Earl, 2002; Zeleny, M., 2002).
Traditionally people assumes internet is a global network formed by tens of thousands regional networks (built on a unified criteria) and several million server computers. The important function of witkey mode is to mobilize human’s knowledge, wisdom through media of internet to solve problems in science, technique, work, life, study etc. So witkey mode assumes people are an indispensable element in internet. Internet is not only the network of machines, its ultimate developing target is to realize the connection of human brains. On the basis of above, We propose new definition of “Internet”.
Definition 3: Internet should be the integration of five elements: physical networks, server nodes, terminals of physical networks , people who operate terminals, data flow and information within server nodes , physical networks, terminal equipments and human brains.
The new concept of internet is also in one continuous line with the concept “to combine human and machine, emphasizing human”, which was brought forward by Qian Xueshen.
Witmap is a new internet application proposed by the author during the development of witkey mode. Formerly we mentioned that “Site of witkey mode is to integrate specialties of answerers. Enquirers can find answerer available in the site of witkey mode” . we name the application as “witmap”.
Definition 4: Witmap is a search engine on human that integrates information of witkeys’ specialties, intellectual products, contact methods ,locations etc in witkey mode site.
Seen from the new definition of internet , witmap embodies the viewpoint that internet inter-connects human’s brains. At present, internet can not connect lines and signals with human brains by physical methods directly(At least in a predictable period), for internet development to this period, as a buffer, the only solution is brain mapping: mapping human brains into internet. Internet integrates these brains mapping and synchronizes information with human brains periodically, the two progresses realize the connection of human brains into a network. 
Brain mapping in witmap mainly includes three sections: A) Section of personal sharable knowledge. B) Section of personal tradable knowledge. C): Section of personal problems. “Section A” corresponds to application of blogs in internet. “Section B” and “Section C” correspond to the application of witkey. Therefore, brain mapping is the combination of blogs and witkey. Witmap is the integration of these brain mappings(Figure 4).
Internet evolution theory is the important achievement in the research of witkey mode. From the separation of BBS functions to witmap brains mapping, witkey mode found that the development of internet is not disorderly and unsystematic. On 26th Dec. 2007, the theory of internet evolution had been brought forward in the science channel of www.sina.com.cn by Liu .
Definition 5: Internet evolution theory is that the ultimate goal for the birth and evolution of internet is to realize the connection of human brain into a network. The goal brings a great urge and guides the development of internet, realizes sufficient connection of human brains into a network.
The most important viewpoints of the theory are as follows:
1) Development of internet is the part of human evolution.
2) The power of internet evolution directly leads the separation and recombination of BBS functions.
3) The power of internet evolution brings on brain mapping and witmap.
4) The power of Internet evolution brings on continuous increase of internet virtual nerve interlinkage. E.g: hyperlink, instant messengers, access records of blog,
5) The power of Internet evolution brings on occurrence of wireless internet network and connection time extension between human brain and Internet.
6) The power of Internet evolution brings on gradual merges of functions within email, online game, BBS and their derived applications.
7) The power of internet evolution leads 2- dimension world developing to 3-dimension world.
Since the birth of witkey mode in June 2007, now there are four main applications for witkey mode. 
Figure 5 Application fields of Witkey mode
Common life: related to the common life field in small value，participants are rewarded by site marks or small prizes. Example：answers.yahoo.com/,iask.sina.com.cn/.
On-line Work：work or tasks that can be accomplished directly through media of internet，such as translation, design, computer programming, consultancy etc. Example: www.k68.cn,www.mytino.com.
Witkey Marketing: through prized activities, prized survey and other business activities, customers can get more comprehension in knowledge, interactivities, interests, prize etc on enterprise’s products and are exerted subtle influence to accept the products and enterprises motion.Example:www.zhubajie.com,www.witkey.com.cn.
(Witkey) Technology transfer：connect experts, senior professional talents of all fields with science and technique problems of enterprises, research academies and institutes. E.g: www.innocentive.com, www.witkey.com .
According to user’s will for knowledge transaction and value of knowledge, intellect etc, we make array on the four fields. thereinto transaction will and value for field of common life is the lowest. and transaction will and value for technology transfer is the highest. In practice, different applications of witkey mode has its self-owned characteristics, therefore different business operation strategy should be taken accordingly (Figuret 5) .
Since 2005 theory of witkey mode was firstly published in graduate school of China Academy of Science, now there are more than 200 sites which identify with the concept of witkey mode. The fields cover laws, management, consultancy, agriculture, education, programming and design, scientific research, recruitment etc. Total number of registered users are more than five millions (statistics on top 10 sites ).Number of registered paying problems is over two hundred of thousands .(Statistics on top 100 sites which identify the concept of witkey mode). Transaction amount is over 10 million RMB(Statistics on top 5 sites). Example of the current most influential sites in China (identify with the concept of witkey mode)：
www.taskcn.com,www.mytino.com,www.k68.cn,www.zhubajie.com,www.witkey.com, www.toidea.com,www.tallzhi.com,www.facejob.cn.
Occurrence of witkey mode also draws high attention of general media, CCTV, China Daily , People’s daily , Interfax , Stern etc several hundred China and abroad media made reports on witkey mode. In 2007, the concept of witkey mode came into the paper of national university entrance exam .several millions of candidate students hence knew more about the concept of witkey mode.
On 18th Nov. 2007, the first witkey meeting was held in Beijing, China by CAS Research Center on Fictitious Economy & Data Science, more than 300 professional experts from witkey mode sites, media etc joined in the meeting. Many internet experts and site managers made discussions on witkey mode from different angle of theory and practice .Furthermore, from 2006 to 2007, several meetings and saloons on discussing witkey mode were held by CCID Consulting, China Academy of Telecommunication Research.
1）To solve the problem that search engine can not give creative answers
Human brain is a “equipment” that is several thousand fold more powerful than any set of super-computer.
Essentially to say, internet realizes the connection of human’s brains. It is human’s advantage to solve problems creatively. Internet exponentially enlarges the advantage.
2) To the coming of knowledge valuelization time in internet
Before the birth of witkey mode, internet only simply shared knowledge and information. No matter Blog or Wiki, its design was only to share intellectual fruits in internet freely , the relative sites get the deposited knowledge value. Witkey mode points out that knowledge should embody its value, the value means not only currency value, but also sense of pride and accomplishment, but the most important encouraging mechanism is still currency value, only power of currency can encourage human’s latent valuable knowledge to be embodied considerably, and decrease the quantity of non-sense information in large scale .
3）To embody a flexible work mode
Witkey mode breaks up the restrictions of district ,time ,working methods etc, and connects witkey talents of all the world in a same platform, creates a fair competition environment and more free working time ,originality and thoughts for human.
Wisdom, technique, experience of tens of thousands witkeys can provide high-quality services with low cost to enterprises.
4）To increases users’ positivity to utilize internet.
Witkey mode encourages users to provide more valuable intellectual products, users can gain economic benefit through witkey mode site by utilizing their knowledge, technique, experience, wisdom, then they have higher enthusiasm to spend their own time on taking part in the solutions of problems, At same time economic benefit drives internet users publish their knowledge and experiences into internet for paying reading .and checking.
1) Problem of marking price for intellectual products.
As per current condition in internet, though people post many questions, but most of them are unwilling to pay for the answers to their questions. According to “Pareto Principle”, only 20% of the inquirers will pay more than one unit of currency to find the needed answers, and the other 80% have to be left for free sharing.
2) Problem of classification of intellectual products.
Scopes of human society cover a wide range. It is difficult to give too much detailed classification. At same time , too much detailed classification will make it inconvenient to be used, but a rough classification will make it difficult for answerer to locate his familiar field. The problem can be solved by setting up the index of intellectual products.
3) Problem of demonstration and trial use of intellectual products.
Intellectual products and physical products have large differences in forms. Intellectual products will lose its value when it is shown to customers, but if not, customers may worry about the contents fraud and are unwilling to purchase. The problem can be solved by building the credit system for users .
4) Problem of intellectual property for intellectual products
Intellectual products belong to their author before transaction, but this kind of products can be transacted repeatedly, after the first time of transaction, when other users buy the products, relative regulations should be made in advance to solve the problems of intellectual property.
5)The problem of fraud in Witkey mode
There are mainly two kinds of fraud behaviors in witkey mode. The first, after enquirer put questions, when gets the answers available, the enquirer forges another ID to answer the question and choose this ID from all the answerers ,then no actual payment is made from him. The second, enquirer put a most concerned question, then forges a low-quality answer and gets benefit from repeated paying reading .The settlement of the problem needs to build up credit system gradually.
It has been two years since the theory of witkey mode was advanced. On the one side, We summarized and abstracted the definition, concept and formula of witkey mode from practice. on the other side, witkey mode is guiding practical applications of many internet sites and producing giant social value and economic value, gaining wide social recognition and attention. In the last two years, witkey mode has gradually set up a theory structure, including definition, theory basis, business operation procedure, application fields etc. considering the depth and width of the theory of witkey mode,We deem that the theory structure still needs to be improved, new fields derived from witkey mode need to be further researched, such as the problem of credit system, problem of combination of operation procedure of witkey mode and its practice, problem of price marking for intellectual products and its transaction, problem of application for witmap( the important achievement of witkey mode), problem of construction for internet evolution theory ,which is derived from witkey mode.
We believe under further research and practice, there will be more achievements and contributions of witkey mode to the applications of managing knowledge in internet.
The authors wish to express their appreciation to Professor Mr. Yong Shi ,Professor Mr. Benfu Lu.for their help and concern in developing Witkey mode.This research has been partially supported by a grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (#70501030, #70621001) and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (#9073020).
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