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Information Society

Mentxu Ramilo

Ph.D. in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of the Basque Country (Spain). Proyelia - R&D Area

The keys to a knowledge-based society

12 may 2010

Photo: Daniela Hartmann

With the arrival of Barack Obama to the White House, initiatives have begun to appear such as Public Administration 2.0 and Politics 2.0, driven by people who want to communicate a new way of doing politics and working with and for citizens. With these initiatives, exemplified in the Open Government Initiative in the United States or in Irekia in the Basque autonomous region in Spain, public activity is granting more transparency. The free access to public data can also create value-added services, such as Data.gov in the US or the Open Data Euskadi in the Basque region. These efforts involve the participation of the citizenry in developing new public policies and services and in the improvement of existing ones. The eCatalunya platform, of the Catalan autonomous region in Spain, aids in the collaborative work and exchange of ideas just as the portal Euskadi.net does in the Basque region.

The analysis of how these policies have been designed is important to the assessment of the work carried out to date and for making suggestions for their improvement. The new comparative study of the development of these policies in Catalonia and the Basque County from 1995 to 2005 is one example.

According to the findings, while the Catalan public policy for the promotion of the information society/ knowledge society came from the bottom up (the pluralist model) driven by many actors, in the Basque Country, the movement has been promoted by the government itself, without relying too much on the opinion of other agents (hierarchical model). But the surprising thing is that, when evaluating the process and results, the Catalan organizations are more negative since they had higher expectations from the beginning. In the Basque Country, organizations were happier with the progress that has been made. Despite not participating in the planning stage, the Basque Government did look to other actors for the implementation of programs.

Another finding of this study is that the models for the promotion of the information society tend to converge: both northern and southern European countries, while at differing paces, have provided facilities to access the Internet through the convergence of various means: digital television, mobile phones, PCs, PDAs, etc. On the contrary, the trends towards a knowledge society diverge. The generation of creative ideas for innovation is not similar in all countries. The reason is that the knowledge society is based on people, on their experience and knowledge, not on the presence of large infrastructures that are easy and attractive to open to much fanfare. Moreover, in many cases there facilities do not reach their full potential since the basic concepts for the knowledge society are not widely disseminated or internalized in cultural terms. These bases are an integrated social community (social capital), an entrepreneurial and innovative culture and the value of collaborative work.

Moving towards knowledge

The first step for a transition from an information society to a knowledge society is universal access to computer and communication technologies. This requires reducing the cost of equipment, expanding the telecommunications infrastructure, reducing the cost of access and guaranteeing the speed of Internet navigation.

Guaranteed access to information and communication technologies is key to the transition from an information society to a knowledge society Additionally, there needs to be an increase in the culture of information technology use. It is curious that many households computers, scanners and printers are decorative objects rather than real tools for training, creating content or the spread of information. Hence, the need to foster a culture in this regard and disseminate the many possibilities that can be found in cyberspace. It is essential to generate a wide range of approaches to augment the use of information and communication technology. Leisure, education, relationships or work, the area this technology touches are endless and the training in these technologies can be self-taught or provided through public training centers or private schools. It is vital that the public is aware of the initiatives under way to socialize the use of these technologies in order to give importance to the creation of information and knowledge via the Internet as well as networking in everyday life.

To achieve a society based on knowledge, it is also necessary to incorporate the concept of creativity in society and give it a heightened status. This creativity must be understood as the creation of new ideas preceded by a rigorous method of work, analysis and synthesis. It must be transmitted that research and invention is hard work, whose most important asset is the personal satisfaction achieved when one plants a question and then does the necessary work to find an answer to it.

In this sense, the correct climate is a key element in ensuring the creation of knowledge. Despite the "constructive ambition" and "dedication to service" for many, the climate and social values deemed popular or trendy by society condition the behavior and decisions of individuals. There are always entrepreneurs and scientists, despite the “easy” models transmitted by the media, which focus on individuals who use the now discredited concept of “fame” to get rich quick. And there is another cause for worry. There are hundreds forms of public aid for the creation of a businesses, but there is a lack of entrepreneurs who dare to sacrifice their time and dedicate part of their life in the creation of new business ventures and innovative services. This is not just about enjoying what one does; the entrepreneurial environment that encourages creativity and research is also an area of freedom open to the generation of new ideas and without the pressure for short-term results.

Finally, we come to innovation, i.e. to all those processes that create new products and services and improve the competitiveness and productivity of organizations. In addition to the conditions laid down above to ensure an innovative community, it is essential that there are hardworking people with original ideas who know how to lead and spread their enthusiasm for the creation, dissemination and internalization of new concepts, values and knowledge. These people could be called “relational energizers,” and they are precisely who are generating Public Administration 2.0 or Politics 2.0.

To make sure that information and communication technologies fulfill their potential for innovation, it is necessary to promote an “innovation culture” in all areas of society. It is also essential to create new organizational models to adapt to the changing needs and the complexity and interdependence of today's problems. Hence, the need to transform bureaucratic and hierarchical organizations into more flexible models of networking that allow communication flow and the exchange of information in a more open, transparent and participatory manner.

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