From Information Islands to a Knowledge Society

Abstract

Men by nature desire knowledge as claimed by Aristotle (384-322 BC).Whereas at one time the decisive factor of production was land, andlater became capital; today the decisive factor is increasingly peoplethemselves, human resources and the amount of information flow that theyabsorb and use in their daily interactions both business and personal;that is, their knowledge. Today, the world is living in the informationage, where products, services and organizations rely on information,information management, communication and information technology toolsand techniques. Consequently, developed and industrialized nations areusing their intangible assets better and faster, which enable them notonly to realize a significant competitive advantage but also to achievesustainability and continuous development and growth. The key to thatachievement is the ability to capitalize on information in variousdevelopmental objectives.Information and knowledge are nowadays the drivers in the globalsociety, much more than land, capital or labor. The capacity to manageknowledge-based intellect is the critical skill of this era (Quinn,1992). The wealth-creating capacity of the enterprise will be based onthe knowledge and capabilities of its people (Savage, 1990). Nationsthat are thriving in the new strategic environment see themselves aslearning nations pursuing the mission of continuous improvement in theirknowledge assets both in tangible and intangible forms (Senge, 1990).Moreover, knowledge and information are possible venues for increasingbenefits and returns as opposed to decreasing rewards from traditionaland tangible resources, which renders them more attractive to nationsthan before. The ability to have a good base of knowledge means that afirm can in future years start leveraging that base to create furtherknowledge; thus, increasing its advantage over its competitors (Arthur,1996).The paper tackles the importance of knowledge as a strategic asset fornations, especially developing nations, those who lack resources andhave a good base of human capital as sources of knowledge bothexplicitly and implicitly. The paper covers Egypt as a case, which has apotential to build its knowledge-based society capitalizing on its humanresources ``humanware{''}. However, to realize that objective, aconceptual framework needs to be developed to enable Egypt to frog-leapto such promising land.