The 5Cs School
Make sense of complexity. Build systems for insight.
Most knowledge systems flatten information into files and folders. A living knowledge system works the way the mind does: non-linear, connected, responsive. Knowledge management isn’t archiving. It is how you decide in the face of complexity, and the 5Cs teach you to master incremental formalization: giving your knowledge structure a little at a time, as your understanding grows.
The 5Cs of Knowledge Management™
A practical method for what you know, and what you need to know.
Flexible and rigorous, for one person or a whole team. It respects your time, your attention and your intention. Citation and attribution run through all five.
- 1
Collect.
What are you paying attention to, and why?
Gather from conversations, documents, platforms and signals, with the citation, so provenance is kept. Collection is conscious noticing, not hoarding.
- 2
Curate.
What’s worth keeping? What can you let go?
Tag, link, refine and make it your own. Curation makes knowledge usable, visible and trustworthy without overwhelming your system.
- 3
Create.
What new insight emerges when you connect the dots?
Synthesize, write, reflect, diagram. You don’t just store facts; you make meaning.
- 4
Collaborate.
Who else shapes your thinking?
Test, expand and evolve ideas with others, with attribution as a practice of gratitude.
- 5
Contribute.
How will you make a difference?
Turn insight into action and into the shared wisdom of your team, community or field.
How we teach it
Human in control, AI in the loop.
With Tinderbox, Obsidian, Zotero and Praxamark™: tools that keep your knowledge in formats you own.
- Courses and workshops for individuals and teams
- Curriculum design for organizations and universities
- The weekly Tools for Thought meetup, open to everyone (below)
Every week · Since September 2020
Join the weekly Tools for Thought meetup.
Since September 2020, Dr. Becker has run a weekly community meetup on Tinderbox, personal knowledge management and tools for thought. Bring a question, a project or just your curiosity. Everyone is welcome, from first-time users to long-time practitioners.
On YouTube
Mastering Tinderbox and the 5Cs of Knowledge Management
Recordings of past meetups: worked examples, community questions and the 5Cs in practice.
Open the playlist →This page names the products, services and companies of third parties for illustration and teaching only. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Naming them does not imply any affiliation with, endorsement by, or association of any kind between them and Identity Praxis, Inc.