Archive: Musings on the Knowledge economy

(Originally posted June 28, 2006 at http://hitmis.postopolis.com/)

I attended a conference on SuperNet opportunities last week and posted some personal blog entries about it. In particular, I ranted about support for a knowledge economy, which lead me to realize that I don’t really understand the term. What is a ‘knowledge economy?’ What are the skills that people need to work in this type of economy? What is needed to nurture the knowledge economy (beyond good ICT infrastructure)?

Wikipedia says “A knowledge economy or a knowledged-based economy is a phrase that refers to the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits.” But that doesn’t really help. I know that the phrase is intended to convey a reliance on what people know rather than on the ‘industrial economy’ which was based on producing tangible goods. However, this doesn’t get me any closer to understanding what it takes to participate in the knowledge economy, to nurture businesses built on knowledge.

OK, there’s an article at the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development called “What is the Knowledge Economy” that starts to get at some important differences between the knowledge economy and our more familiar industrial economy. In particular, the idea is that knowledge creation leads to GDP growth; as a result, R&D should be encouraged because this leads to knowledge creation and innovation.

The Commonwealth Centre for eGovernance contains a document discussing tools for the knowledge economy that is well worth the read.

From my short time researching the topic and trying to better understand the elements necessary to drive the knowledge economy, this is what I’ve come to believe:

• information and communications techology (ICT) infrastructure is necessary to participate in the knowledge economy but not sufficient.
• ICT is an enabler; it releases the creative potential and knowledge of people and organizations
• ICT can facilitate knowledge creation rather than act as a driver of change
• ICT opens up global markets
• People are the valuable commodity
• Quality education (access) is required in order to nurture knowledge workers
• we must stimulate innovation and creativity in organizations and people
• there must be cultural change to ensure that people and their intelligence is valued
• It’s no good to impose external ‘best practises.’ We need to let people (organizations, teams, countries,…) find the best way for them to work to create and share knowledge. If we impose strucure, then we undermine confidence and the message that we value intelligence. If we say we value knowledge, then we need to let people use their own intellect to create structures and knowledge.
• knowledge gained by experience is as important as formal education (which is why we have to let people think for themselves in the bullet above)
• lifelong learning is vital for both people and organizations.

OK, but why does any of this matter in a blog for MIS students? Well, if we’re interested in working with information systems, in being ‘knowledge workers,’ then we need to understand what skills are important. And we need to know how to apply those skills, how to exploit the resources we have available to us (our brains) to provide value to an organization. That’s why having an idea of what is meant by ‘knowledge economy’ is important to us all.

I guess the key lesson, then, is that we need to always be learning.