Knowledge policy
Encyclopedia
Policies are the paradigms of government and all bureaucracies. Policies provide a context of rules and methods to guide how large organizations meet their responsibilities. Organizational knowledge policies describe the institutional aspects of knowledge creation, management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

, and use within the context of an organization’s mandate
Mandate
Mandate can refer to:*Mandate , an obligation handed down by an inter-governmental body*Mandate , an official or authoritative command; an order or injunction*Mandate , the power granted by an electorate...

 or business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

. Social knowledge policies balance between progress in the knowledge economy to promote global competitiveness with social values, such as equity, unity, and the well-being of citizens.

Knowledge policies

Knowledge policies are becoming an increasingly important element of the Information Society
Information society
The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...

 and the knowledge economy
Knowledge economy
The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies to...

. Such policies provide institutional foundations for creating, managing, and using organizational knowledge as well as social foundations for balancing global competitiveness with social order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....

 and cultural values. Knowledge policies can be viewed from a number of perspectives: the necessary linkage to technological evolution, relative rates of technological and institutional change, as a control or regulatory process, obstacles posed by cyberspace, and as an organizational policy instrument.

From a technological perspective, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 (1816) noted that laws and institutions must keep pace with progress of the human mind. Institutions must advance as new discoveries are made, new truths are discovered, and as opinions and circumstances change. Fast-forwarding to the late 20th century, Martin (1985) stated that any society with a high level of automation must frame its laws and safeguards so that computers can police other computers. Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...

 (2000) noted that both policy and technology must be designed with an understanding of the implications of each other. Finally, Sparr (2001) points out that rules will emerge in cyberspace because even on the frontier, pioneers need property rights, standards, and rules of fair play to protect them from pirates. Government is the only entity that can enforce such rules, but they could be developed by others.

From a rate of change point of view, McGee and Prusak (1993) note that when an organization changes its culture, information policies are among the last thing to change. From a market perspective, Martin (1996) points out that although cyberspace mechanisms change very rapidly, laws change very slowly, and that some businesses will use this gap for competitive advantage. Similarly, Sparr (2001) observes that governments have the interest and means to govern new areas of technology, but that old laws generally don’t cover emerging technologies and new laws take time to create.

A number of authors have indicated that it will be very difficult to monitor and regulate cyberspace. Negroponte (1997) uses a metaphor of limiting the freedom of bit radiation is like the Romans attempting to stop Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, even though early data broadcasters may be eaten by Washington lions. Brown (1997) questions whether it will even be possible for governments to monitor compliance with regulations in the fact of exponentially increasing encrypted traffic within private networks. As cybernetic environments become central to commercial activity, monitoring electronic markets will become increasingly problematic. From a corporate point of view, Flynn (1956) notes that employee use of corporate computer resources poses liability risks and jeopardizes security and that no organization can afford to engage in electronic communications and e-commerce unprepared.

A key attribute of cyberspace is that it is a virtual rather than a real place. Thus, a growing share of social and commercial electronic activity does not have a national physical location (Cozel (1997), raising a key question of whether legislatures can even set national policies or coordinate international policies. Similarly, Berners-Lee (2000) explains that key criterion of Trademark law – separation in location or market – does not work for World-Wide Web domain names because the Internet crosses all geographic boundaries and has no concept of a market area.

From an organizational perspective, Simard (2000) states that “if traditional policies are applied directly [to a digital environment], the Canadian Forest Service
Canadian Forest Service
The Canadian Forest Service is a sector of the Canadian government department of Natural Resources Canada. Part of the federal government since 1899, the CFS is a science-based policy organization responsible for promoting the sustainable development of Canada's forests and competitiveness of the...

 could become marginalized in a dynamic knowledge-based economy.” Consequently, the CFS developed and implemented an Access to Knowledge Policy that "fosters the migration of the CFS towards providing free, open access to its knowledge assets, while recognizing the need for cost recovery and the need to impose restrictions on access in some cases" (Simard, 2005). The policy comprises a framework of objectives, guiding principles, staff responsibilities, and policy directives. The directives include: ownership and use; roles, rights, and responsibilities; levels of access and accessibility; service to clients; and cost of access.

See also

  • Cyberspace
    Cyberspace
    Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...

  • Digital economy
    Digital economy
    A digital economy is an economy based on electronic goods and services produced by an electronic business and traded through electronic commerce...

  • Electronic business
    Electronic business
    Electronic business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-business", or an internet business, may be defined as the application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of business...

  • Electronic commerce
    Electronic commerce
    Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...

  • e government
  • Information market
    Information market
    Although information has been bought and sold since ancient times, the idea of an information marketplace is relatively recent. The nature of such markets is still evolving, which complicates development of sustainable business models...

  • information society
    Information society
    The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...

  • Internet economy
    Internet Economy
    The internet economy conducts business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. An Internet economy differs from a traditional economy in a number of ways, including: communication, market segmentation, distribution costs, and price.- Internet economy...

  • Knowledge economy
    Knowledge economy
    The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies to...

  • Knowledge management
    Knowledge management
    Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...

  • Knowledge market
    Knowledge market
    A knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. There are two views on knowledge and how knowledge markets can function. One view uses a legal construct of intellectual property to make knowledge a typical scarce resource, so the traditional commodity market mechanism can be...

  • Knowledge organization
    Knowledge organization
    The term knowledge organization designates a field of study related to Library and Information Science . In this meaning, KO is about activities such as document description, indexing and classification performed in libraries, databases, archives etc...

  • Cybernetics
    Cybernetics
    Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...

  • Viable System Model
    Viable System Model
    The viable systems model, or VSM is a model of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are...

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