To grasp the idea of open knowledge, we can note the importance of its precursor,
metapattern (e.g. a pattern of patterns), contributed by Bateson (1979), popularly communicated
as “the pattern that connects,” and taken up by Volk (1995). Metapatterns are macro level
phenomena, pervasively woven structural-functional rudiments of systems, deceptively simple at
first glance, invisibly intricate in their complexity, and just what one would be looking for at the
global level of organization, expectantly indicative of open knowledge. Bateson was a global
thinker and synthesizer, and his disciple Volk followed his tradition. Though metapattern relates
to the general idea of what open knowledge is, for the purposes of this article, the construct is
construed in terms pertinent to the learning organization and effective practices of organizational
activity at the most macro level of description, the planetary context.