Central in KTM are the concepts 'territories' and 'traces'. When people work, they leave knowledge traces by doing things, writing things and saying things. People may either intentionally ('smell flags') or unintentionally ('foot prints') leave strong and clear (i.e. precise place) traces or weak and vague (i.e. place and is not completely clear like boundaries of territory) traces. People may intentionally or unintentionally leave as little traces as possible or try to remove their traces. Strong and clear traces inform other people about someone's knowledge territory, weak and vague traces leave other people in the dark about one's knowledge territory. In other words, people either hide their knowledge territory or show-off with their knowledge territory by the strength and clearness of the traces they leave.

This reminded me of gossip research and how people seem to use gossip to jostle for social position. It makes a lot of sense. Of course, if you follow Janine's metaphor theory, then the best spaces for collaboration are neutral spaces, spaces which aren't heavily "scented" with the owner's knowledge.

But does that then mean weblogs themselves aren't great collaboration spaces?
Equally, are Invisible Colleges formed specifically for that neutrality, everyone coming from their own territory round a shared interest? And does their modern online reincarnation as echo chambers then remove that neutrality?

And, er, last question, is that why some conferences are in Davos, Switzerland?