Knowledge Networking for Development: Building Bridges across the Digital Divide

Abstract

As the dependencies between developed and developing countries increase with the globalization of the world economy, the need to access and use dispersed knowledge and skills are at a premium. As the costs of skill sets increase in the developed world, organizations are turning to the developing world to cater for their knowledge resources. The sharing and use of diverse and disparate knowledge has become a key engine for development. This paper investigates how knowledge networking can enable the digital divide to be overcome. Following a phenomenological analysis of knowledge activation through information and communication technologies, this paper provides insight into the development processes that are driven by knowledge networking. The contribution of this paper is in the discovery of the ways knowledge networking can be used to bridge the digital divide