Thursday 20 August 2009

Knowledge Society - Part I

In a recent meeting the current Cenelec president, Dietmar Harting, made an excellent proposal: To start in Europe a programme "Knowledge Society" similar to the programme "Information Society" that was launched in the middle of the 90s.

Dietmar is absolutely correct: societies and economies in Europe are transforming from the information society to the knowledge society. This is can be seen as the central movement into this new millenium. And Europe should react on this and become a driver in the transformation process.

I understand that different units and directorates in the European Commission are already considering an initiative along these lines. The critical issue is, of course, what constitutes this transformation, what are key elements of the knowledge society, and what focus should such a programme have.

Over the next couple of weeks I will start a bit of brainstorming, for sure with a focus on openness and standardisation, but not necessarily limited to that. This is definitely an exciting topic. Being successful in the Knowledge Society means being successful in globalisation.

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