A Community Developed Knowledge Base System and Its Impact on a School Closing Decision

The use and impact of a community-developed knowledge base on the decisionmaking process of an actual school closing is discussed. This was not an academic exercise but rather grew out of the needs and frustrations of a highly polarized community. The study is one of second-order cybernetics, utilizing citizens of the community as participant-observers or co-researchers in the process. In so doing the knowledge base development and its community use are related to the issues of holistic communication, citizens' use of technology, and conceptual model building.