Technology

It seems to be almost a reflex action among knowledge managers, to see IT as the solution, argues Nick Milton.

Many KM initiatives that Halcyon was witnessed down the years would support this contention: as a former colleague once put it succinctly, "a fool with a tool is still a fool". 

Milton, rightly, is not against IT an enabler to knowledge sharing, but he contends that the key is to think what's needed and not to assume that technology provides all the answers:

There are ways that individuals can reduce the amount of electricity wasted by home computers and other devices.

The rapid rise in smartphone ownership could lead to rapid growth in micro-volunteering.

The rapid rise in smartphone ownership could lead to rapid growth in micro-volunteering.

Biotechnology has the power to improve human health, address environmental challenges, and change the way the world does business.  An OECD report, The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda, examines the role of biotechnology in the global economy over the next two decades and outlines policies that could maximise its benefits.

A recent study found that 47% of organisation shave formal KM initiatives, 78% expect their reliance on knowledge sharing to increase, but only 33% that use KM already have even come close to achieving the goals originally set.

Biofortification may help make staple foods - which provide millions of poor people with calories but which do not always contain enough of the micronutrients required for good health - more nutritious.

Some call it The Shift, others call it Blessed Unrest, and still others talk of a "civilian surge" - the idea that around the world people who have hugely different access to opportunities and wealth nonetheless inhabit an increasingly common environment in which mobile and other emerging technologies can tell protestors and poor farmers and street kids about how various aspects of their life could be improved.