4 May
Characteristics of the Next Society
Every institution in the knowledge society has to be globally competitive.
The next society will be a knowledge society. Its three main characteristics will be:
Borderlessness, because knowledge travels even more effortlessly than money.
Upward mobility, available to everyone through easily acquired formal education.
The potential for failure as well as success. Anyone can acquire the "means of production," that is, the knowledge required for the job, but not everyone can win.
Together, those three characteristics will make the knowledge society a highly competitive one, for organizations and individuals alike.
Information technology, although only one of many new features of the next society, is already having one hugely important effect: it is allowing knowledge to spread near-instantly, and making it accessible to everyone. Given the ease and speed at which information travels, every institution in the knowledge society—not only businesses, but also schools, universities, hospitals, and increasingly, government agencies, too—has to be globally competitive, even though most organizations will continue to be local in their activities and in their markets. This is because the Internet will keep customers everywhere informed on what is available anywhere in the world, and at what price.
5月4日
下一个社会的特征
知识社会中的每一个机构都必须具备全球竞争力。
下一个社会将是知识社会，其三大特征是：
无边界，因为知识的传播比资金更加轻松；
向上流动性，通过易于获得的正规教育向所有人开放；
既有成功的可能，也有失败的可能。任何人都可以获得“生产资料”——即完成工作所需的知识，但并非所有人都能成功。
这三大特征将使知识社会对组织和个人而言都高度竞争。
信息技术虽然只是新社会诸多特征之一，但已经产生了一个极其重要的影响：它使知识几乎可以瞬间传播，并向所有人开放。鉴于信息传播的便捷与速度，知识社会中的每一个机构——不仅是企业，还有学校、大学、医院，甚至越来越多的政府机构——都必须具备全球竞争力，尽管大多数组织的活动和市场仍然是本地化的。这是因为互联网使全球客户能够了解世界各地的产品及其价格。
