Planetary Knowledge

 Introduction

The world is awakening to Planetary Knowledge. It is being built daily, and at lightning speeds. The infrastructure is firmly established – the World Wide Web is becoming the greatest extension to, collectively, all the neurons of the planet.

You might even say that we have now evolved a new brain, or at least, a very powerful extension and a new faculty to our brain. There is a new and vibrant global knowledge economy. Knowledge economics is starting to break all the old rules, and we must all adapt and participate in this new global transition to a new order, as best we can.

This book, Planetary Knowledge is about three things:

1.    Assessing and understanding the rapid growth, and the radical and fundamentally new opportunities for us all, in the Global Knowledge Economy

2.    Developing effective knowledge working competencies everywhere on the planet, so that we may all better participate in the Global Knowledge Economy.

3.    Providing a vision for a new Knowledge Economics and a much more sustainable quality of life and ethics, as planetary citizens.


Part 1 describes planetary knowledge. How it is arranging itself, and how it works. Part 1 assesses the Global Knowledge Economy and it discusses the opportunities for massive growth. It suggests that the global financial crisis of 2009 is not just based on financial inefficiency and traditional economic cycles, as important as they are, but also, a much more profound global restructuring is taking place. A fundamental restructuring is taking place around knowledge.  A new order of knowledge economics is appearing. As always, in a new economic era, the early adopters will enjoy substantial success. Google, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, are just a few early examples of such phenomena on an increasingly knowledge driven planet. There is much more to come. We are moving from a warm up act to the main planetary act. We can send information around the planet, at the speed of light, in seconds. But turning that information into knowledge takes time, critical new skills, and new tools.

Part 2 aims to turn this new vision into practical daily reality. It revisits the basic timeless principles for effectively creating and applying knowledge. It describes a highly innovative 21st Century knowledge management formula, process, new methods, new knowledge working tools, and new techniques that can be effectively applied by individuals, teams, organizations, inter-organizations, and even global communities. And the good news is that many of the new methods, tools and techniques are available free of charge on the World Wide Web.

Part 3 discusses the radical and fundamental transition from personal knowledge working to effective global knowledge working, and glimpses a future beyond planetary knowledge to planetary wisdom. Part 3 bridges the 'creation' of planetary knowledge, to, and with, the 'application' of planetary knowledge, in the here and now, for everyone, everywhere.

The great hope of this book is to make aware, and to inspire, as many people as possible throughout the world, to better realize the massive new growth and income opportunities that are becoming available. It aims to describe better ways of working, and ways to better participate successfully in the global knowledge economy.

And, if the effective management of knowledge assets is going to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, new wealth creator for the 21st Century, then the greatest service that we can provide to one another is to teach the critical skills of effective planetary knowledge working, so as to be able to successfully participate in a global knowledge economy