From the start, the term ‘knowledge economy’ was coined in 2006 by Harvard University professor Lawrence Katz to describe the emerging wave of “knowledge-based businesses” that were emerging in the United States.
Katz, a co-author of the book, The Power of Knowledge, was in the middle of a career in academia when he first saw the power of the Internet to connect the world’s citizens to knowledge.
He and his team of academics, researchers, entrepreneurs and business leaders founded Knowledge Economy to provide a better way to connect people and knowledge.
Now, more than 200 years later, Katz is still thinking about the future of the term.
But he’s already started to see a shift in how he sees the term’s meaning.
“I think it’s about getting the word out there and making sure it’s not just about technology,” he said.
Katz says that the power that the Internet gives us is an important part of the definition of knowledge economy.
“It’s about connecting people and getting information,” Katz said.
“And the technology is changing the way that information is disseminated and that is the power behind it.”
Katz has been involved in various entrepreneurial ventures and has developed several business models to support this growth.
He said he believes that in the future, people will be able to buy their way into knowledge, but it won’t be by buying a lot of books.
Instead, the knowledge economy will be driven by the power consumers have to get information and to find information.
“The idea of the knowledge market is that you want to buy your way into a place, to know something,” Katz told NBC News.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.
What is the value proposition for us?
What are the opportunities for our companies?”
Katz believes the power people have to buy access to knowledge will help drive innovation in a world where information is so cheap and accessible.
“If you have access to information, it’s free, you can make your own decisions, you have the freedom to make your decision, and you can do whatever you want,” Katz added.
“We’re talking about the power to learn, to be informed, to innovate and to create the knowledge that people need.”
Katz’s vision of the future is the vision of what he called “a knowledge economy” that’s based on innovation, the power and freedom consumers have today.
“Technology is the foundation of a knowledge economy,” he explained.
“You need the power, the freedom, to make a decision.
That’s what you want.
And it’s something that I see being a key part of this next phase of our economy.”
Katz believes that innovation will continue to be the driving force behind the future.
“Innovations are the power.
The innovation that we’ve seen is the result of our willingness to innovate,” he added.
Katz said that innovation has been on a path to become increasingly common over the past several decades.
But in recent years, he said, “It has been an increasingly disruptive force.
And that’s because innovation has become more difficult.
You can’t make a product with the same value proposition in the marketplace as you can with the technology that’s been in existence.”
Katz said there’s a lot more to the future than just technology.
He believes that the “value proposition” of the “knowledge economy” will continue evolve as the power consumer has become a bigger part of society.
“When the value of knowledge is about value, it becomes a lot harder to make decisions, to create knowledge,” he continued.
“There will always be a role for technology in that.”
Katz thinks that the role of the power customer is to be part of that future innovation.
“What we need is to find the right balance between the power user and the value user,” he concluded.
“This will be the future.”
