Preliminary thoughts on the relationship between knowledge creation and obsolescence in an information-based economy
Abstract
The new electronics technologies are propelling a transformation in value creation from being based on physical work to being based on knowledge. While the economy thus created is based on innovation, its corollary is an acceleration in obsolescence. Some products such as personal computers are now on a three-month product cycle, demonstrating that even as value is being created more quickly, it also being destroyed more quickly. In the case of software, the quintessential product of the Information Economy, obsolescence is also extremely rapid. Information and knowledge creation have already become the central pivot in capitalist economies and this is like to continue and even become more prevalent. Current descriptions of the economy emphasis its roots in information and/or knowledge, to this we might add that the economy is obsolescence-based.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).