Collaborative Memory Storing and Sharing@

M S Sridhar We all know that computers have variety of memories like internal memory, external memory, random access memory, etc. Human memory is quite fascinating and funny and hence must also have some parallels. We are all blessed with brain, the most complex and mysterious living organ. But no one gave us a suitable manual with operating instructions for brain, the base for our memory. There is too much of information for us to store, remember and recall when it is needed. Failure to recall or poor memory can badly affect us in our work and social life. On the other hand, well recorded and organised memory together with memory skills can help us to recall better at appropriate time. The classical 3 Rs of memory are recording, retaining and recalling. There are many limitations to storing and organising our memory and also recalling from our memory. Firstly, according to Rule 150, we can remember only up to 150 relationships with people. Secondly, large part of our lasting memory is recorded and filled before we become adults. Thirdly, our vocabulary building itself completes by the time we are 25 years and only 5% can be added over rest of the years. Fourthly, we do retain what we read or learnt for few minutes immediately after learning. But while recalling from memory, we lose nearly 80% of details learnt within 24 hours. Fifthly, though the human brain cells can hold five times the information found in the Encyclopedia Britannica, most of us use only 8 to 10 per cent of that capacity. Interestingly, brain is the only organ that expands with use it is use it or lose it situation. It does not mean that brains retention power can be easily improved and expanded.

There are two kinds of memory storages in human brain. The temporary short-term memory storage made up of system signals traveling around the neurons and the impressions are liable to be either erased or transferred to permanent storage by changes in the amount and composition of the molecules of ribonucleic acid (RNA). The newly acquired information is first stored in short-term memory. In order to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory repeated rehearsal and practice is required. It is very important to note that, contrary to common belief, memory does not fall, but rises immediately after break from studying/ reading (i.e., intake of information) due to the fact that left and right hemispheres sort things out at subconscious level immediately after taking in information. Thus taking periodic breaks in study is considered very helpful to hold in memory.

In a sense, the entire recorded knowledge can be considered as external memory of people. However, if we consider memory as what we store in our head in the form of ideas, impressions, facts and so on, lot of what we try to remember and recall later is often stored outside our brain with only some sort of vague metadata of it stored in the internal memory. Often we memorise where to find information like names or telephone numbers (address book and just dial) rather than the names or telephone numbers themselves. Not only we

try to have memory of where to find within ones own brain, but also create and use collaborative or joint memory systems and memory sharing mechanisms called transactive memory with spouses, family members and close friends. Transactive memory is an implicit joint memory system created when we know each other very well with the understanding about who is best suited to remember what kind of information. This kind of transactive memory sharing is more pronounced in families. That is when a new piece of information arrives, members of the family implicitly know who is best suited and whose responsibility it is to store and share that information. For example, it is adolescents in the family who keep information on new electronic gadgets and the mother who obviously keeps child-care information. By doing so, there develops an automatic specialization among the members of the family in storing and sharing information. Such specialisation keeps growing to the extent that any member can effortlessly draw information from this implicitly known external memory when need arises.

Some pioneering organizations have even extended the concept of collaborative memory sharing to organizations and attempted for institutional transactive memory leading to cohesive teams of very high order. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Collaborative memory storing and sharing (Guest Editorial). SRELS Journal of Information Management, December 2012, v. 49 (6) - .
@