Understanding a knowledge society

Everybody is talking about a knowledge society, but what does this mean. Is a knowledge society something from the last decade? In order to get a (critical) socio-historic view of a knowledge society, I recommend the book 'Where have all the intellectuals Gone? Confronting 21st century philistinism' written by Frank Furedi. I found the following parts resourceful:

... today's postmodernists follow the path set out by the anti-Enlightenment reaction of the nineteenth century. They claim that all knowledge is socially constructed; therefore, all knowledges are incommensurable and all knowledges are in principle, equally valid ...Postmodernists frequently claim that there is no single road to understanding ... Postmodernists have elaborated this idea to suggest that since there are many truths, there are also many valid ways of getting there...

... the tendency to equate knowledge with the insights that people gain from fragmentary experience makes it impossible to have a meaningful common standard to evaluate knowledge claims. By transforming knowledge into knowledges, the role of the intellectual has become compromised. The knowledge of the intellectual can be interpreted as just a point of view with no special significance for society...

Frank Furedi is calling this the relativization of knowledge and that is why educationalists now regard experiential learning as having a status comparable to theoretical knowledge

... the culture of fear that influences the public's apprehension of technological innovation and experimentation coexists with the demand for more science and more knowledge of the workings of the natural world. Similarly, cultural relativism may thrive on campuses and in the arts and the media, but government and business are continually looking for objective knowledge to settle many of the disputes facing society...

... the problem today is not the pragmatic demand for practical knowledge. It is that instrumentalist pressures on knowledge production are rarely contained by a wider quest for understanding...

Twitter #[ISBN nr] and enrich valuable information published in a book with personal knowledge

I started using Twitter 6 to 7 months ago. Probably as everybody I was a bit skeptical, but soon after registering I already understood the huge benefits of 'informal networking'. Via Twitter I followed conferences I was interested in but, unfortunately, unable to participate in because (1) it was too far away or (2) too expensive. Within Twitter, thoughts, ideas and other comments during a conference are being tagged with a specific tag (# and an abbreviation of the conference). This is a great way to stay up-to-date of thoughts/discussions from the ones who have the same interests (because the are attending the conference ) - but who I don't know personally.

As a result, I think that Twitter can also become really valuable to librarians, researchers and students. While I am reading my books in the field of knowledge management, innovation management and organizational learning I use Post-It notes to mark my thoughts in certain sections of the book. This can become an intensive job - especially if the book is generating so many interesting thoughts. Additionally, the Post-It notes are only accessible for the one person who has my own book in his/her hands. This is not what we call 'knowledge sharing'. Therefore I was thinking of the following:

Use Twitter to save citations and/or thoughts from a book with a special tag. So, for example, right now I am reading the book 'Knowledge Governance: Processes and Perspectives' edited by Nicolai Foss. It's ISBN number is: 9780199235926. Every thought/citation that might be of interest to me will be tagged with the tag #9780199235926. This tag is unique for the book and if everybody is starting to use Twitter to tag their own thoughts with its unique tag, we collaboratively create a very rich description of a book. Or perhaps it isn't a description, it's knowledge that is being added to information.

One critical comment about this idea how Twitter can help out librarians, researchers and students: the tag only consists of 11 characters, so you should be very precise with what you want to say in your comment about the books via Twitter, because this leaves you with only 129 characters (and if you also want to include the page number)...

However, keep a close eye on my Twitter account (http://twitter.com/richardlalleman), because in the next month I will certainly experiment with this.

Call for papers: The 5th International Conference on Innovation and Management (ICIM2008)

ICIM2008 will highlight current thinking and future trends in management of innovation, knowledge economy and emerging business models. Representatives from a large number of countries will attend the event. The conference format includes plenary and parallel sessions with both academic and practitioner presentations. In addition, the conference will provide networking opportunities together with a taste of local culture.

Main Topics:

• Key (converging) technologies in the 21st century (nano-, bio-, ICT technology)
• Technological innovation, product innovation and industrial innovation
• Regional innovation systems, clusters and industrial networks
• Organizational innovation
• Managing collaborative innovation
• Financing and commercializing innovation
• Innovation in services, logistics and supply-chain management
• Intellectual property and knowledge management
• Human resource management issues in innovation
• Innovation and management issues within multinational corporations
• Innovation for low-income markets and social innovation
• Innovation for sustainable development