Cultures and countries that maximize the creative inputs to the development process are aided by information and communication technologies, but the key factor is their people, the main asset of a knowledge society, and the possibilities for the free interchange of knowledge and ideas, finds a follow-up study issued today by the United Nations.
Understanding Knowledge Societies, written by Jerzy Zseremeta with the analytical and statistical support of Irene Tinagli, suggests the possibility of “institutions and organizations that enable people and information to develop without limits, and that open opportunities for all kinds of knowledge to be mass-produced and mass-utilized throughout the society as a whole”.
Produced under the auspices of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the study pursues and further develops themes explored in World Public Sector Report 2003, on e-governance. Understanding Knowledge Societies examines the parameters of participatory and transparent governance from the fresh perspective of policy focused on mass-production of knowledge. A ranking of 45 countries in an “Index of Knowledge Societies” is provided, in which Scandinavian nations score highly. But some transition and developing countries appear in the top five countries in related indexes, such as Costa Rica and Slovakia in the “foresightedness” category, and the Republic of Korea in “assets”.
