Digital Knowmads

In a world driven by exponential accelerating technological and social change, globalization, and a push for more creative and context-driven innovations, how can we ensure the success of ourselves as individuals, communities, and the planet? Knowmad Society explores the future of learning, work and how we relate with each other in this emerging paradigm.

Moravec (2008) defines a knowmad as:

[…] a nomadic knowledge worker –that is, a creative, imaginative, and innovative person who can work with almost anybody, anytime, and anywhere. Industrial society is giving way to knowledge and innovation work. Whereas industrialization required people to settle in one place to perform a very specific role or function, the jobs associated with knowledge and information workers have become much less specific in regard to task and place. Moreover, technologies allow for these new paradigm workers to work either at a specific place, virtually, or any blended combination. Knowmads can instantly reconfigure and recontextualize their work environments, and greater mobility is creating new opportunities.

In other words, knowmads are extensions of Drucker’s (1992) knowledge workers concept, embracing the convergence of accelerating technological change and globalization. In particular, the use of advanced information and communications technologies enable knowmads to work beyond the pre-19th century notions of nation states, corporate identity, and community identity. For some, knowmadism is achieved through the leveraging of social media (i.e., Twitter or blogs) that add an additional layer of social and/or professional activities that defy the confinement to particular geographies and operational rules they may have been restricted to as recently as 10 years ago. For others, knowmads engage in work that is transnational, transcultural, and post-organizational in scope. And a few select others may develop and apply such individual experitise that their work in new context creation enables them to be considered postnational and postcultural actors in their own right.

Knowmads are valued for the personal knowledge that they possess, and for how they contextually apply it. Moreover, knowmads:

(Note: List inspired by Cobo, 2008)

Knowmad Society brings in a futures orientation, projecting not only the future workforce, but also examines the social, educational, and organizational implications for developing human capital that is relevant for the 21st century. We are at a crossroads where we can design a new human renaissance, built on leveraging our imagination, creativity and innovation – or we can doom ourselves to repeating the mistakes of our past.

This volume explores knowmads in society in terms of natural evolution steps from industrial and information-based society ("Society 1.0"), knowledge-based society ("Society 2.0") and Knowmad Society in an era of accelerating change ("Society 3.0"). Educational and organizational implications are explored further, bringing together academics, practitioners, and policy leaders from the United States, the Netherlands, and Chile. In addition to presenting a full theoretical framework for Knowmad Society, examples and first-hand experiences of knowmadic educators and business leaders will be shared. The book ends with a powerful message of "what's it going to take" for nations and cultures to succeed in Knowmad Society.