Tokyo, Japan While most of the world associates microprocessors with desktop computers, the majority, in fact, are embedded into common, everyday electronic devices like the hundreds displayed in Bunzo Miyazawa's cluttered electronics stall in Akihabara, the Tokyo neighborhood where thousands of vendors offer the latest in entertainment and business equipment
	Is Human Capital an advanced concept, or is it really a notion related to a growingly urgent reality?
	In order to continue to participate to the economy, organization must adapt they ways of working. They must become knowledge organizations.
	At all levels, the economy is being restructured so deeply that all organizations (down to individual units) must focus on new success factors.
	Leixlip, Ireland Blind since birth, five-year-old Amy Stewart learns to read by a computer that converts written lessons into Braille printouts. Advanced technology is enabling the blind to join a world previously inaccessible to them. Kent Cullers, a prominent astrophysicist who is also blind, observes, "I interact as many other people do nowadays, through their machines. And the wonder of the technology is that I can do the job just as well as many other people can."
	Demonstrates key competencies: Adaptable, flexible, creative, problem-solver, decision-maker, eager to learn continuously Multi-linguist Capable of obtaining relevant information directly from its source Power-user of ICT Capable of getting fast the information they need through individual/organizational/global infostructure Capable of spreading their ideas fast for real-time recognition and application
	See presentation on Knowledge Management on December 21st by Lukas Ritzel
	Because knowledge becomes such a focus in the Cybernetic Era, it is vital for any organization to understand what knowledge it owns, what knowledge it can access, and how it can optimize such knowledge to build up a unique competitive advantage. Such advantage might be very different from the one it used to have in the Industrial Era… Where do education institutes stand in this environment?
	Funabashi City, Japan It's winter all year round for ski buffs who don't want to spend hours in traffic getting to the slopes. Just outside of Tokyo there is now a computer-driven indoor winter sports facility - the largest in the world. Inside a building as tall as the Statue of Liberty, the operating system uses microprocessors to keep the snow falling, the lifts running and the temperature at a cool -3 C.
	Tokyo, Japan The Japanese call them otaku, those computer-crazed youths whose passion for technology seems to take over their lives. The bedroom of 27-year-old Masakazu Kobayashi, who says he's living a "cyberlife," is dominated by seven PCs networked together, six videogame machines and a variety of peripherals. When he ventures out of the house, he travels with a laptop and a palmtop computer, a cell phone and a modem
	“An entry point to information, content and applications that users (customers, employees and partners) require to streamline business processes and maximize efficiency, collaboration and intellectual assets. In other words, the portal empowers end-users to access and interact with all information and applications stored in databases across a company's value chain - anywhere at anytime”. <Definition provided by Chris Blaik, Marketing Director of Divine UK, in Virtual Business – Sept 2001>
	Shanghai, China No dressing room? No problem. The aptly named New World Department Store saves space by letting shoppers try on clothes right on the sales floor. After their video image is captured on screen, customers can see themselves in any outfit in any color, at the click of a mouse.
	Hong Kong, China IPIX technology could be the cure for homesickness. A preview of what IPIX has to offer was developed in conjunction with Intel Asia Pacific in a site documenting life on the streets of Hong Kong during the handover. Images such as those taken at the Man Mo Temple were brought together into a seamless mosaic that users could explore with their cursor. Visitors to the Web site described their visit as "the closest thing to returning home."
	Every business strategist will attest to the sense of implementing good knowledge management in this modern information and knowledge age. It simply has to be done. The question then arises as to what has gone wrong, and will continue to go wrong? Why is it that something that makes good business sense does not seem to work? Why are knowledge management initiatives failing? Much of the mistakes of both the early and more recent adopters of knowledge management can be traced to the serious oversight of not including the knowledge audit in their overall knowledge management strategy and initiatives. The knowledge audit is the indisputable first step in a knowledge management initiative yet it has not been sufficiently recognised as being of paramount importance to any and every knowledge management undertaking. By Ann Hylton of http://www.HyltonAssociates.com
	Singapore Tastes great, smells awful. The stinky tropical fruit known as durian is adored throughout Asia, but devotees dread carrying it home in their cars or keeping it around the house. Now connoisseurs of the odoriferous delicacy can order it on-line from 717 Trading Company and have it delivered just when they're ready to eat it.
	One of the biggest challenges faced by respondents to a survey conducted in UK by management consultancy Andersen is that having undergone mergers and acquisitions, they now have a wide variety of incompatible data systems. Charles Swain, head of Enterprise Technology at Andersen, comments:
	Shanghai, China Modern conveniences don't include a bathroom or cooking facilities in this one-room Shanghai apartment. Instead, the Hei family has invested in a PC, cell phone, pager, TV and VCR. The patriarch of this middle-class Chinese family, Xiao Ping, runs his printing business with the cell phone; son Dan studies computer science at the university. The family shares a toilet and kitchen with several others in their high-rise and showers in a public facility across the street.
	Innovators Those organizations that take e-technology capabilities, immediately integrate them into their business model, and aggressively move those capabilities into their marketplace. They typically reshape the rules of play within their industry. They are driven by market valuations and increasing share price. They tend to realize value across the entire spectrum, never forgetting that in order to capitalize on opportunity value, they must also keep the basics of efficiency and effectiveness value in place. Fast Followers Those organizations that tend to watch closely the strategies and adaptations of the innovators. They typically adopt the same e-technology capabilities as innovators, also working those capabilities into their business model, but about 6 to 9 months after the innovators. Those capabilities are often brought to the marketplace on a massive scale, possibly to millions of customers at a time. Their goal is to capture market share. Traditionalists Those organizations that really have yet to move on the possibilities and benefits that e-business offers. These organizations either have not done anything with e-business and e-technologies, or they may have taken the first basic step of creating a basic website with company information. They tend to hold on to traditional measures of success like market share or margins, even while the world around them is changing. Their value focus is on efficiency and effectiveness.
	Efficiency This value is realized by an organization when e-technology capabilities are deployed to provide cost economies to operational processes. This may be in the form of reducing organizational costs or increasing economies of scale Effectiveness This value is realized when e-technologies are leveraged to improve organizational operations. This type of value typically takes the form of improvements in organizational functioning, enhancements to core competencies, or even the creation of core competencies. Reach This is the integration of e-technology capabilities to extend organizational boundaries. It may take the form of creating customer loyalty, satisfaction, image, or mind share; creating linkages, leverage or channel control over suppliers; or creating alliances, reducing cost of ownership, and enhancing marketplace perception through partnered relationships. Structure An organization realizes this value when e-technology capabilities are used to influence the overall dynamics of its industry. This takes the form of orchestrating industry forces, protecting or improving industry position, establishing new sources of revenue, or changing competitive dynamics. Structural value comes from organizations using e-technologies to meet unmet marketplace needs; in particular, un-served customer needs. Opportunity This is the ability to use e-technology capabilities to create marketplace options that an organization may exercise at some future date.
	Tashkent, Uzbekistan Nearly two-thirds of the 150 million blind or severely visually impaired people in the world would be able to see, if only they had the right medical treatment. Volunteer doctors with the humanitarian group ORBIS transplant a cornea using digital cameras attached directly to their surgical instruments, and larger ones suspended above the patient, to allow local doctors in an adjacent room to watch operations as they are performed.
	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Bowed in reverence toward Mecca, workers pray near the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings. These twin spires form the northern border of the Multimedia Supercorridor (MSC), formerly a 48-km swatch of oil palm plantations. The MSC will include Cyberjaya, or cybercity, and Putrajaya, a new national capital planned to be the worldâs first paperless bureaucracy.
	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The Malaysian Government is spending billions of dollars in a country where the per capita income is U.S. $4,200 to transform the tropical southeast Asian nation into a computing capital rivaling Silicon Valley.
	Bangalore, India A true computer guru marries tradition and technology, promising the fastest horoscopes in town. With custom astrology software, the guru takes about five minutes to compile charts that used to take hours based on the exact position of the stars at the time and place of birth. His time freed up, he focuses on interpreting the charts, which many Indians use to make major life decisions.
	Hong Kong, China Computers to go: Customers around the world are now able to custom order their computers, specifying the amount of memory, disk-drive size and even selecting the CPU. In Hong Kong, vendors like Matthew Chan custom-build systems on the spot. Business is also lively on the Web, where American PC manufacturers are now selling millions of dollarsâ worth of computers a day
	You need to recognize that your competitive value lies on knowledge (which? Coming from whom? – Infostructure/HC Audit) You need to capture and build upon this knowledge (KMS) You need to ensure that your KM solution is Totally integrated (no redundancy / no re-input) Open to all knowledge sources and users (accessibility scope) Allowing a fast Return on Investment (your product might not be your solution) Scalable The job is not over once the technical platform is ready Knowledge sharing mindset (potentially the most costly mistake) Knowledge sharing as an integrated part of daily work Focus on knowledge related to your strengths in line with business strategy
	Penang, Malaysia At an Intel plant in Penang, Malaysia after a battery of sophisticated tests, a technician visually inspects a tray of finished processors before they are sent to a warehouse and used to fulfill customer orders.