ROMEO ILIE

       
       

Future means knowledge

Most actual and future humanity ‘s technical, scientific and financial efforts are focused on the process of building up of the Information Society and of the Knowledge Based Society. However these are not by themselves the targets!

The collocation Information Society has not much significance to those who are not directly connected to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)field. Information Society should be perceived by the majority of the citizen as a source of benefits as: a tool for high speed information acquiring, for mailing anywhere on the globe by  means of the electronic mailing, for accessible and high quality public services. Already the Internet is used on a large scale for communication and getting data. 
In the context of the more complex and global economy the enterprise managers are increasingly depending in the process of prognosis, planning, and decision taking, on the access to accurate, safe data. There is not necessary that everybody knows about computers and software, as well there is no need that everybody knows what is a account balance sheet, how differ the symptoms of liver diseases of that of the heart diseases. There is not mandatory that everyone knows the law or the nuclear energy generation process. For these topics and for much more others there are the professionals: engineers, economists, professors, medicine doctors, lawyers. We all, the whole society, benefit from their knowledge, from their expertise, from the benefic EFFECT of the their SCIENCE! 
The Information Society is by no means a hobby of those implied in "hardware", "software" or "communications". They are only the "researchers" and "providers" of information and electronic services for citizen and public or private enterprises. As a consequence of their endeavour was the emergence of Internet, of e-mail, of the opportunity to meet without displacing, to communicate without knowing the interlocutor. Due to their work, nowadays it is possible to contact any community decision making responsible, to fill in "electronic" documents and even sign them "electronically". Their strive make possible by the means of ICT the "electronic" voting, the "electronic" referendum at the local or national level, the "electronic" goods and services shopping and payment, makes more easy, efficient and precise the medical investigation and diagnosis, more effective the process of continuous education. Without all these benefits to the citizen, summarized as contributions to increasing the work and business productivity, of the transparency of the decisional act at all levels, the rising of the life standards, the simplification of the bureaucratic administrative procedures, the ICT personnel work would have no more sense. 
The Knowledge, more specific, the technical and scientific knowledge, is more and more recognized as being the vital growing element in the economy. The human society interest is increasingly more focused to information technology, to the learning, research and innovation processes and to the definition of their roles in the economic growth and overall in the society development. The role of the Knowledge nowadays, as a pillar of the new society and economy, of the durable development, is more than its simple dissemination, either by traditional or electronic means. Knowledge has become a basic component of almost all the processes and products of the modern society, from learning to business management. TIC is the ideal support for promoting and developing such type of society, providing at low cost and high efficiency, on large scale knowledge dissemination. This represents the globalization process engine, leading to a more and more interdependent society, in which the information is the main input/output of the international economic system.
As a recent phenomenon, the Knowledge Based Economy has several definitions. It seems that on short term for Romania the most adequate definition is the one promoted in 1998 by the UK Industry and Trade Department: 
"A Knowledge Based Economy is the economy in which the achievement and the use of knowledge has a prominent role in the welfare of the society." Computers, Internet, software, information, knowledge these are the key elements of the future. 
Only by investing today in education we can expect to have tomorrow more educated citizen, prepared to use the new technologies at work and at home! Only by investing today in research we can expect to have a more powerful competitive economy, and a better life for each citizen! Only by investing today in ICT we can expect the growth of performance in all social, economic and cultural fields! 
Education, research, innovation, ICT: these are the four pillars of the Knowledge Based Society and Economy. 
Romania must adopt a positive attitude with regard to these concepts. Ignoring them can keep us on long term at the knowledge periphery and outside the welfare bringing knowledge flows.

Romeo Ilie