Definition of the city:
"An inhabited place for greater size, population, or importance than a town or a village" is the Meriam-webster dictionary entry for "city". Most definitions for the city, unless referring to a very particular usage, convey the concept of a status granted to a relatively permanent, organized human settlement. Conurbated regions, sections of large metropolis, suburban areas, even highly urbanized rural or industrial areas that are home to relatively large and established communities and provide fundamentally an urban experience to its habitants called city. Urbanization experienced a great leap during the industrialization revolution; massive urbanization took hold in most countries, throughout the 20 century. It is only with the advent of 21st century that for the first time in human history over half of the worlds population is becoming a city resident.
Definition of the knowledge:
Is what is known. Like the related concepts truth, belief, and wisdom, there is no single definition of knowledge on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and continued debate about the nature of knowledge. The Longman Online Dictionary Definition for knowledge is the information, skills, and understanding that you have gained through learning or experience. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose. Knowledge in the Knowledge management context consists of information augmented by intentionality (or direction). This conception aligns with the DIKW model, which places data, information, knowledge and wisdom into an increasingly useful pyramid. COLLOCATIONS The origin of the DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) hierarchy is in both the Knowledge Management and Information Science domains. Although references to the DIKW hierarchy were made by both Zeleny (1987) and Ackoff (1989) in the Knowledge Management domain, the closest reference to T.S. Eliot’s original hinting appeared in a Futurist article by Cleveland (1982). Conspicuously, data was not in the original information, knowledge, wisdom hierarchy suggested by Eliot or Harland but was added by others. Since then others have also proposed extensions to the ‘top half’ of the hierarchy; Ackoff includes understanding (and some use intelligence) as its own level before attaining wisdom, and Zeleny proposes enlightenment as the final stage beyond wisdom.
The field of KM can be seen as an integral part of the broader concept ``intellectual capital'' (Roos et al., 1997). In literature there are three kinds of intellectual capitals proposed by Stewart (1997) including every knowledge resource. The first is human capital which refers to the capability to solve a problem and is the source of creativity. This is similar to the terms “employee knowledge, “employee competencies” and “professional intellect” proposed by Leonard-Barton (1995), Sveiby (1997) and Quinn, et al. (1996) separately. This is relevant to employees and their experience, competencies, know-what, know-how, know-why, and self-motivated creativity (Mayo, 1998; Davenport, et. al., 1996). The second intellectual capital is structural capital; it is the organizing capability of an organization in order to satisfy the needs of the market. The organizing capability refers to organizational structure, processes, systems, patents, culture, documented experience and knowledge, and the capability to leverage knowledge through sharing and transferring (Stewart, 1997; Holsapple & Joshi, 1999; Mayo, 1998). This is similar to the terms “internal structures,” “organizational capital” proposed by Sveiby (1997) and Petrash (1996).The third kind of intellectual capital is customer capital. It concerns the relationship between an organization and its stakeholders, such as a supplier or customer relationship, brands, and reputation (Stewart, 1997; Holsapple & Joshi, 1999), Sveiby (1997) called it “external structure.”
Knowledge management is managing the corporation’s knowledge or intellectual capital by means of a systemic and organizational specified process for acquiring, organizing, sustaining, applying, sharing and renewing both tacit and explicit knowledge by employees to enhance the organizational performance and create value (Davenport, et al., 1998; Allee, 1997; Alavi & Leidner, 1999). For sustaining these processes both ‘hard’ conditions and ‘soft’ environments have to be created and nurtured. Hard sides mean technological platforms and including facilities and necessary devices. Soft sides consist in trust, team spirit and learning climate for contributors’ productivity. At organizational level, distinctive visions and strategies are formulated to guide and regulate knowledge management, relevant evaluation and reward institutions are to be created to define responsibility and liability of individual and organization.
Tacit and Explicit knowledge:
Within the field of knowledge management there exist two quite distinct and widely accepted types of knowledge: tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge as identified by Polanyi (1962, 1967) is knowledge that is hard to encode and communicate. It is ephemeral and transitory and “cannot be resolved into information or itemized in the manner characteristic of information” (Oakeshott). Further, tacit knowledge is personal, context-specific and hard to formalize (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Towards the other end of the scale, explicit knowledge is exactly that kind of knowledge that can be encoded and is transmittable in language, once again via the conduit metaphor. It is explicit knowledge that most current knowledge management practices try to, and indeed are able to, capture, acquire, create, leverage, retain, codify, store, transfer and share.
The importance of knowledge management:
It has been observed that the major competitive advantage for a corporation lies in the corporation’s knowledge (Drucker, 1968; Bell, 1973; Toffler, 1990, Nonaka, 1994). Knowledge has limited value if it is not shared. The ability to integrate and apply the specialized knowledge by organization members is fundamental to a firm to create and sustain a competitive advantage (Grant, 1996).
The knowledge management (KM) is very important in the 21 century because it helps organizations to gain competitive advantage and effective working through sharing and re-using knowledge. In the market place of e-business, KM initiatives are used to systematically leverage information and expertise to improve organizational responsiveness, innovation, competency and efficiency (RICE) (Lotus, 2001). There are many reasons why knowledge should be managed properly especially using the collaborative technology. Among these are information overload, technology advancement, increased professional specialization, competition, workforce mobility and turnover, and capitalization of organizational knowledge. In the business world, knowledge management (KM) is considered as the process of creating value from intangible assets of an enterprise. Knowledge is considered as a valuable asset of an enterprise, which has to be managed. The essence of KM is to provide strategies to get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and in the right format (Nonaka, 1991; Wiig, 1993, 1997; Wilkins et al., 1997: Milton et al., 1999; Ergazakis et al., 2004). It deals with how best to leverage knowledge internally in the enterprise and externally to the customers and stakeholders. However, over the last few years KM evolved into a strategic management approach, finding application not only in business but also in other human organizations and areas such as education, governmet, and international organizations etc. The fact that major international organizations - such as the European Commission (2000), the World Bank (1998), the united nations organization (2001), and the OECD (2001) have adopted KM frameworks in their strategic directions regarding global development clearly indicates that a new link was created between KM and Knowledge based development (Carillo, 2002; komninos, 2002; metaxiotis et al., 2004).
Rethinking cities in the knowledge based development
Knowledge has been the critical source of progress since the origins of the human kind on earth. What is new and rapidly evolving nowadays, is the explicit and purposeful management of knowledge as a strategic resource.
Figure 1 briefly depicts the evolution of ‘‘knowledge city’’ (KC) concept during the last years. It is a subfield of knowledge-based development (KBD) and refers to all aspects of social, economic and cultural life of a city. It can be defined as follows:
A knowledge city is a city that aims at a KBD, by continuously encouraging the knowledge management (KM) processes. This can be achieved through the continuous interaction between its knowledge agents themselves and at the same time between them and other cities’ knowledge agents. The city’s appropriate design, ICT networks and infrastructures support these interactions (Ergazakis et al., 2004).
The term ‘‘knowledge agent’’ refers to any entity (human, organization, company, university, technology park, research center etc.) that manage knowledge. This definition is illustrated in Figure 2.
Another important advantage of a KC is that it favors the preservation of a ‘‘local’’ character that respects and takes into account the history, particularities, mentalities and the concerned region’s needs.
The examination of the above mentioned pre-requisites and criteria revealed that some of them are indispensable for any modern well developed city. However some others could be considered as characterizes for what is called "a knowledge city". In this respect we have the followings:
Any modern- well developed city:
· High quality of life;
· Provision of efficient, dependable and cost competitive to infrastructure to transport of people, goods, information.
· An urban design and an architecture that incorporates the new technologies.
· Central educational strategy including all cultural facilities and services;
· Economy with enough "critical mass" to support world competitive specialization;
· Networks of commercial influence, in order to attract funds,
· Market access and awareness, that is to say high capacity in sustaining robust trading
Relationships with other markets.
· A business culture, which is at once collaborative and competitive.
● Responsive and creative public services; and
● Open, tolerant and merit based culture and inclusive society.
A knowledge city:
· Provision of access to the new communication technologies for all citizens;
· Research excellence which provides the platform for new knowledge-based goods and services;
· Provision of instruments to make knowledge accessible to citizens, in a systematic, efficient, and effective way;
· Ability to generate, attract and retain highly skilled citizens in different domains; and
· Existence of civic centers being open to diversity and fostering face-to-face relations.
Based on the findings above, it can be concluded that the concept of the knowledge city is particularly new and very broad; it may be refer to some or all of the aspects of social, economic and cultural life of a city. The definitions mentioned above are of different kinds and examine the concept from various points of view. All the definitions are highly dependent on the main strategic objective(s) that such a city has. Consequently, any attempt to give a definition for this concept must be accompanied with reference to these strategic objective(s).
Key success factors:
The process of developing a knowledge city is neither quick nor simple. As it was mentioned above, this concept refers to many different aspects of life in a city. In this way, any effort to develop a knowledge city must be actively supported by the entire society. i.e. local government, citizens, private sector, organizations, universities etc. It requires a coherent strategy, starting with an examination of the city’s strengths, local government’s political will, regulatory environment, resources and ability of the population to develop a knowledge-sharing culture. Local governments have different strategies to transform their cities into knowledge cities.
Figure 3 presents the main key success factors related to the knowledge city concept, categorized in six basic categories. It must be noted that this categorization has derived from the examination of existing efforts to develop knowledge cities.
- Political: the political will is the most important factor for the success of the concept. It can be characterized as the spark for any further action. Of course, an appropriate legislative framework should exist.
- Strategic: any attempt to transform a city to a knowledge city is doomed to failure if it is not guided by a clear strategic vision. This strategic vision should incorporate and take into account the entirety of in-depth knowledge concerning the city status. It is compiled by the actors being responsible for the future of the city (e.g. local government, specific agencies and organizations etc) and it results to a set of specific objectives and a series of measures and actions.
- Financial: before the implementation of any strategic plan, the appropriate funding of the initiatives should have been ensured. Through marketing actions, the city can attract outside investments.
- Technological: it is important that citizens are familiar with new technologies and have access to them. The information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure of the city should be of a high level.
- Societal: a high level of education and standard or living combined with a knowledge-sharing culture is significant because it will allow the widespread adoption - from citizens part - of the new concept and of the necessary changes n their way of living. All that happens in the appropriate context of human rights and freedoms.
- Environmental: the business environment and the market needs are two very significant factors that should be thoroughly analyzed. During the implementation phase, the private sector and NGOs play a major role. Their commitment to the strategic plan and their active support to the implementation of projects will help towards the direction of transforming the city into a knowledge city.
Main benefits of knowledge cities
Nowadays, it is quite clear that the traditional model of development is no longer functional. The advantages of the knowledge-based development for the human societies are also particularly emphasized during the last years in the lterature (Malone et al., 2002; Laszlo et al, 2002; Arbonies etal., 2002; Mansell, 2002; Scheel, 2002). In this context, the main benefit of knowledge cities is that, by definition, they are functioning in such a way that is in favor of their knowledge-based development. If we would like to examine the benefits of knowledge cities, on a more local scale, we should refer to the following:
· creation of more and well-paid employment;
· faster growth in community’s income and wealth;
· a more sustainable economy, by increasing their capacity to take on technological innovations and attract off-shore investment;
· revitalization of traditional industries;
· a boost to tourism;
· greater opportunities to share the wealth through investment in the public domain (parks and gardens, public transport, cultural facilities etc) and better funding of social safety nets;
· a boost to the city’s pride and confidence, which acts as a platform for reinvestment of local capital into the local economy;
· creation of knowledge communities that will provide" just-in-time" knowledge when it is needed;
· better education services; and
· creation of a tolerant environment towards minorities and immigrants.
In addition, the structure of a knowledge city contributes to the better functioning of democracy by online knowledge-sharing among all the citizens, provision of inexpensive, real-time access to consistent, up-to-date information facilities, support for online debates etc. We should also stress the fact that the digital divide" is replaced with digital inclusion" and the benefits of technology flow to all members of the community. Finally a knowledge city could serve as an excellent platform and basis for the further development of a digital city or a virtual knowledge city.
Digital cities integrate urban information and create public spaces for people living in the cities(Ishida,2000),Many worldwide projects had or have as a main target to develop digital cities over real-life cities (Van den Besselaar et al. 1998; Beckers, 1998; Peeters,2000; De Bruine ,2000 Ishida,2002; McQuillan,2002).
