These are complex topics that cannot be left to specialists. Transforming e-Knowledge aims to demystify these topics and make them approachable to everyone. To support this effort we have created an online repository of resources, including a searchable glossary of terms at www.transformingeknowledge.info. Use the online resources simultaneously to support your reading.

Across the globe, we see examples of the e-knowledge revolution. From Bombay to Brisbane to Boston, practitioners are heightening their appreciation of the strategic importance of knowledge.

Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant—and perhaps the only—source of competitive advantage.

Peter Drucker

Individuals and organizations must fundamentally reshape the manner in which they appraise what they know, what they can do with it, and what they need to know. They must also track best practices when they create, manage, deploy, and leverage knowledge. These new competencies will be compelling sources of competitive advantage in the Knowledge Economy. Over time, technology will be a core component of all knowledge management and learning. The “e” will truly be redundant in reference to e-knowledge management, e-learning, and e-business activities—if it is not already so.

What do we know now that we didn’t know ten years ago? That learning and knowledge are the result of multiple intertwining forces: content, context, and community.

John Seely Brown

Today, a wide choice of solution providers specialize in the distinct areas of content, context, and community. Within five years, successful solution providers will meet the challenge of covering all three areas, while others will specialize in particular areas. Early adopters and influencers sense that now is the time to participate in shaping these developments. Enterprises that wish to succeed realize that they must act now to start to build and reshape knowledge infrastructures, capabilities, and cultures.

A diverse assortment of learning and training organizations and industry consortia are well positioned to advance this transformation. Poised for leadership and success are standards organizations, content aggregators, and collaborative alliances of knowledge organizations, including libraries, colleges and universities, and professional societies, and associations.

Leveraging technological innovation, solution providers are creating applications that will evolve into powerful and pervasive e-knowledge capabilities. An e-Knowledge Economy is emerging, consisting of providers and users in every sector. All have a stake in the development of policies, protocols, and practices that will accelerate the growth of e-knowledge to meet the knowledge sharing imperatives of the Knowledge Economy. As an e-Knowledge Industry emerges, we can expect a series of “jump shifts” in our best practices for learning and knowledge management and in our ability to harness technological capability.