The Information Space or I-Space is a conceptual framework relating the degree of structure of knowledge (i.e. its level of codification and abstraction) to its diffusibility (i.e. how, why, and at what rate it spreads) as that knowledge develops.
The model was developed by Max Boisot, and the I-Space framework has been acknowledged as an early influence on the development of the Cynefin framework.
[2] The I-Space model is commonly shown as a cube with three axes: abstraction, codification and diffusion.
The curve draws a social learning cycle, showing how as knowledge is increasingly moved from concrete experiential Zen type knowledge (insights which can occur suddenly, often equated with a kind of enlightenment) to codified highly abstract (expert language etc.
), where it is increasingly easy for it to diffuse independently of the knowledge holder.