Knowledge Economy
Extreme Convergence

Most most countries are seeking to position themselves in the predicted future global knowledge economy.

Are they going about it the right way? Are they all trying to win the same race - if so surely the majority of countries will be disappointed.

The article below written by Peter Churchward - the founder of www.e-service-expert.com tries to answer this question and point countries towards defining their own Eldorado before it is too late.

From Information Society to Knowledge Economy

The very basis of the information society in which we now find ourselves has come about as a result of convergence. Technologies once entirely different in the way they worked, e.g. telephones, TVs, process controllers, white goods, car ignitions, etc all now use the ubiquitous 0's and 1's so beloved by computers and are thus able to work together in a myriad of previously unimagined ways.

As this 'coming together' has embraced ever larger components and processes - from object oriented programs to components to common services, etc. we now need to take that final convergent step and converge the way we think about our e-service domains of health, education, knowledge, government, commerce, urban living, etc, into one plan for the economic prosperity of our nations and develop a unique national vision of the future - there very own vision of the e-nation.

We owe it all to convergence

As digital convergence brings disparate technologies together to a point where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts the information society must now adjust to a new paradigm if it wants to create a knowledge economy.

A paradigm that is itself driving disparate technology based socio-economic drivers, e.g. e-health, e-government, e-commerce, e-cities, etc. and the policies that aim to accelerate their development towards greater convergence.

The final stage of transformation into the knowledge based economy must be to converge the associated policy directives onto a single target with laser like precision – focused on the Gross and per capita Domestic Product of the national economy.

This will not happen by accident (at least not in a timely manner) but by coordinated goal congruent design and commercialization.

Commercialization, itself having two distinct strands:

1. Direct commercialization of the intellectual property associated with both the high value and low value components of the value chain/s associated with the products and services needed to build the knowledge economy in the first place.
2. Indirect commercialization based on the high value and low value components of the value chain/s associated with the use and deployment of products and services in all sectors of the economy – low, medium and high tech sectors.

The strategic development and accompanying policy making associated with the individual e-strategy domains covered in this benchmarking exercise cannot and will not for some time to come have the clarity or precision associated with other more longstanding areas of policy making, e.g. Innovation, R&D, Education, etc.

Each e-strategic domain represents in varying degrees a radical departure from the past (divergence). Current best practices are but pointers to the future and indicators are, at best, a priori measures of effect of past policy accumulations.

Having spent much of the last 20 years on e-programs around the world and had the opportunity to benchmark various countries it is clear to me that most countries with some exceptions) are failing to converge their planning and governance in line with technological convergence.

Korea knows something
we don't?

That this is so, in the case of Korea, is partially due to Korea's overt commercialization and recognition of virtuous cycle policies and its ability to establish a unifying vision u-Korea that equally embraces both the public and private sectors. Singapore plays to a similar tune.

Even so, both countries still have some way to go when it comes to defining the end goal in any degree of detail.

Trailing someway behind is the UK who, whilst recognizing the need to converge policy, lack the unifying vision or commercial (economic) motivation to do so, but have made significant progress in their attempts at defining what the end goal might look like. Australia, too has undertaken bold experiments, e.g. Govhack, to explore the future in certain areas of their e-domains.

Other countries, e.g. Switzerland and to a lesser degree, Australia have found that they can gain international recognition (on global indices)for their progress towards the future knowledge economy by doing nothing or very little to directly foster it – thanks in part to the indices used, e.g. macro-economic stability scoring well in an economic crisis that has lowered the rankings of other countries.

The question is - are any of these countries making a unilateral statement of where there journey ends and what does that destination look like, or are they waiting for some other country to paint a picture for them. Even a Rembrandt might look dull if there were hundreds of perfect copies!

Countries of all types of cultural identity and political persuasions are embarked on a journey (largely defined a priori by a set of indices which in many ways is anachronistic) into the future – a future that is far from being defined with any degree of precision.

Indicators seek to catch up with the twists and turns and nuances of this socio-economic experiment and observers can only identify the trends.

What lies at the end of the journey (if indeed there is an end) or how many course corrections it will take to reach a comfortable place for each nation can only be guess work – intelligent guess work, maybe, but guess work none-the-less.

Follow your own path!

If you don't know where we you are going - all paths lead there!

Current trends, whilst important to observe, by no means define a universal destiny for all countries or all peoples.

As we move forward from technological convergence towards convergence in the planning, participation and delivery of a knowledge based, technology enabled future Knowledge Economy – the opportunity to elect how best to progress these advances for the betterment of our own small flock and for the world in general opens up the possibility to establish our own unifying vision.

It is now time to chose our own particular niche in the Knowledge Economy and to establish our own forms of government, health care, education and learning, commerce, urban and rural living that describes rather than prescribes or circumscribes our own unique national identity and aspirations for the future of our respective nations.

It is evident from the countries I have bench-marked, that the information society is on the tipping-point – knowledge will soon become as ubiquitous as data and information has become today – that we can already see, e.g. creative commons licensing, knowledge networks, online journalizing, social networks, etc.

The liberating effect on the peoples of the world will eclipse that of Gutenberg’s printing presses.

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity - Revisited

A powerful new driver has emerged to fire new forms of liberty, equality and fraternity – it is time for nations to stop competing in a race to a single destination where only a few can be winners and have the confidence and fortitude to define their own race – a race they can win – a ‘whole-of-country’ approach that captures their beliefs, culture and ideals; an established niche in the new world economy that is the precursor of greater world harmony to come, rather than be a pale imitation of a prescriptive ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of the future.

The fundamentals are in place – all that is needed is the imagination and leadership. As the early American colonists gathered together for security and companionship on the long trek to unknown territories in the West and a brighter future they ultimately split up to find their unique Eldorado and forge their individual futures – so it will be here too.

Formula 1 - Break for the Start and for the Finish

Just as in motor racing - success will likely come to those countries that make the break at just the right time. The collective strategies represent the tools they will need to use to forge the future where the final outcome is greater than the sum of its parts.

A country can only win this race by concentrating its various domain strategies into an holistic (all embracing) goal congruent strategy for their own unique ‘high tech-high touch’ vision of the knowledge economy – their unique e-nation.

Though far from a universal destination for all countries; the zenith of current holistic thinking is best portrayed by South Korea, it represents the penultimate target to aim for - if only they could bottle it!

a personal view from the founder of e-service-expert.com

Peter J. Churchward

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