Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning

 

Special Issue on: “Knowledge Society: A Roadmap for Government Consultation”

Guest Editors:
Miltiadis Lytras, University of Patras, Greece
Thomas Davenport , Professor and Director of Research, Babson Executive Education, Babson College, USA.
Laurence Prusak, Co-Director “Working Knowledge”, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Babson College, USA.

The knowledge society is often treated as a utopia, where optimistic considerations for the role of new technologies envision unrealistic value-adding services for citizens, and knowledge is purported to create dramatic economic advances.

In the last few years, several scientific disciplines have initiated debates on the characteristics of the knowledge society and the required consultations towards the establishment of “managing bodies”, the crafting of strategies and policies as well as the specification of action programmes.

Given the significance of the knowledge society as a new context of our era, four significant objectives formulate the justification of this special issue:

• The need to investigate the “soft” and “hard” aspects of the knowledge society, with the aim of providing organisational and cultural frameworks as well as infrastructures enabled by the evolution of information technologies
• The need to provide a sustainable worldwide knowledge society vision based on collaboration, knowledge and learning for all and especially for people in need
• The need to anchor government policies in scientific evidence concerning the characteristics of the emerging knowledge intensive economy and social environment
• The need to investigate the key priorities of the knowledge society in terms of critical aspects of human life (e.g. health, education, culture, science, business etc)

The special issue aims at helping in communicating and disseminating the vision of the knowledge society through specific priorities and actions for government and/or NGO policies. It is intended to initiate a dialogue between the government and the research community based on a well-defined context. It could initiate a “New Deal” for Education in the 21st century.

Subject Coverage
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Strategies and support for:

• Creating a public knowledge and learning management environment
• Achieving sustainability and interoperability of knowledge-intensive public services in an open and accessible digital environment
• Replicating services across national borders – handling regulatory, administrative, linguistic and cultural differences
• Improving the take-up and quality of public services
• Bridging the digital divide and avoiding new forms of digital exclusion based on, e.g., education, language, culture, age or gender
• Raising the level of trust and confidence in the enabling technologies for the knowledge society
• Creating sustainable business models for the knowledge society that leverage the entire value chain and enable the full participation of as many stakeholders as possible
• Establishing policies and practices that would help to make the knowledge society an implementable reality

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Papers Submission section under Author Guidelines

Important Dates

Manuscripts due by: 30 May 2006

Notification to authors: 15 September 2006

Final versions due by: 15 November 2006