Innovative Thinking and Peace: The Peace Innovation Course at Stanford

Prof. Johan Galtung is fond of giving the example of Mulla and the Eighteen Camels to underline the importance of innovative thinking and compassion in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

Peace Innovation - a new undergraduate course at Stanford University taught by Prof. B J Fogg (of Computers As Persuasive Technology (CAPT-ology) fame) - aims to "help people use new technology to invent peace". Students work in small groups using Web 2.0 services (Flickr, Google maps, YouTube ....) to explore if they can be used for peacebuilding.

The course is based on the idea that noew technologies such as mobile phones and web 2.0 are great tools of persuading people into believing (belief formation) and behaving in a certain way. Very interesting indeed.

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Knowledge 2.0 - Knowledge Outsourcing using Web 2.0 technologies

Image via WikipediaTeaching in virtual classrooms and knowledge outsourcing is a emerging and fast developing trend in India. The online learning market is set to grow manifold in the coming years and Web 2.0 technologies, in combination with faster Internet are critical in making knowledge outsourcing a key part of services exports from countries like India. Numerous Indian internet startups have harnessed the power of the Web 2.0 to impart online tutoring to pupils at home and abroad. Tutorvista has already developed a niche in this market. A promising company with links to India is WizIQ. According to the company website,

WiZiQ is a web-based platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach and learn live, online. Teachers and students use WiZiQ for its state-of-the-art virtual classroom, to create and share online educational content and tests, and to connect with persons having similar subject interests.

WizIQ has recently developed a module for Moodle - the most popular education related Content Management System (CMS) solution. The WizIQ moodle module connects to WizIQ's free Online Virtual Classroom - a free alternative to expensive conferencing tools in online teaching/learning software market.

I am currently testing WizIQ for online teaching and have added the module to my moodle site: http://www.tutorvista.com/moodle

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Galtung: Positive and Negative Peace

Image via WikipediaIn 1994 I had the pleasure of taking a course on peace studies at the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Stadtschlaining, Austria where Prof Galtung taught us.

Johan Galtung: Positive and Negative Peace

Author: Baljit Singh Grewal
Affiliation: School of Social Science, Auckland University of Technology
Date: 30 August 2003

Introduction

In this essay, the word peace is the central focus. It is often stated that, the word peace is very often used and abused and that since it lacks an agreeable definition and difficult to conceptualise, it is unreal and utopian. The word peace conjures images of harmony and bliss in psychological, social and political sense. These images seem to conflict with the reality of a chaotic and non-harmonious world. The field of peace research is an attempt to reach towards a world which is peaceful or at least free of violence. Peace Research carries a normative value of striving towards peace, not only in international relations but also in domestic politics. The present essay deals with peace theory and not conflict theory because that is a related but separate branch within peace research.


View the full document here....
You can download the pdf file here ...

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Hayek on the use of knowledge in society

Image via WikipediaHayek, F. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society". American Economic Review, 35(4), 519-30.


Here is what Hayek has to say about knowledge use. Excerpt from his classic paper:


"It will at once be evident that on this point the position will be different with respect to different kinds of knowledge; and the answer to our question will therefore largely turn on the relative importance of the different kinds of knowledge; those more likely to be at the disposal of particular individuals and those which we should with greater confidence expect to find in the possession of an authority made up of suitably chosen experts. If it is today so widely assumed that the latter will be in a better position, this is because one kind of knowledge, namely, scientific knowledge, occupies now so prominent a place in public imagination that we tend to forget that it is not the only kind that is relevant. It may be admitted that, as far as scientific knowledge is concerned, a body of suitably chosen experts may be in the best position to command all the best knowledge available—though this is of course merely shifting the difficulty to the problem of selecting the experts. What I wish to point out is that, even assuming that this problem can be readily solved, it is only a small part of the wider problem.

Today it is almost heresy to suggest that scientific knowledge is not the sum of all knowledge. But a little reflection will show that there is beyond question a body of very important but unorganized knowledge which cannot possibly be called scientific in the sense of knowledge of general rules: the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place. It is with respect to this that practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active coöperation. We need to remember only how much we have to learn in any occupation after we have completed our theoretical training, how big a part of our working life we spend learning particular jobs, and how valuable an asset in all walks of life is knowledge of people, of local conditions, and of special circumstances. To know of and put to use a machine not fully employed, or somebody's skill which could be better utilized, or to be aware of a surplus stock which can be drawn upon during an interruption of supplies, is socially quite as useful as the knowledge of better alternative techniques. And the shipper who earns his living from using otherwise empty or half-filled journeys of tramp-steamers, or the estate agent whose whole knowledge is almost exclusively one of temporary opportunities, or the arbitrageur who gains from local differences of commodity prices, are all performing eminently useful functions based on special knowledge of circumstances of the fleeting moment not known to others.

It is a curious fact that this sort of knowledge should today be generally regarded with a kind of contempt and that anyone who by such knowledge gains an advantage over somebody better equipped with theoretical or technical knowledge is thought to have acted almost disreputably. To gain an advantage from better knowledge of facilities of communication or transport is sometimes regarded as almost dishonest, although it is quite as important that society make use of the best opportunities in this respect as in using the latest scientific discoveries. This prejudice has in a considerable measure affected the attitude toward commerce in general compared with that toward production. Even economists who regard themselves as definitely immune to the crude materialist fallacies of the past constantly commit the same mistake where activities directed toward the acquisition of such practical knowledge are concerned—apparently because in their scheme of things all such knowledge is supposed to be "given." The common idea now seems to be that all such knowledge should as a matter of course be readily at the command of everybody, and the reproach of irrationality leveled against the existing economic order is frequently based on the fact that it is not so available. This view disregards the fact that the method by which such knowledge can be made as widely available as possible is precisely the problem to which we have to find an answer."

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What is Knowledge Policy?

Excerpt from my PhD thesis about knowledge policy

The notion of knowledge policy refers to the political mechanisms used to realise knowledge goals at the individual and social level. The policy focus on impacts of knowledge on society is part of what Nico Stehr (2004) has termed “knowledge politics”. The reason for the emergence of knowledge policies, according to Stehr, include, the emergence of new forms of knowledge leading in part to the diminishing of difference between applied and basic research; the rapid speed and volume of emerging new knowledge creates increased capacities to act, concerns for possible adverse impacts, increased risk and uncertainty, increased social, economic and political centrality of knowledge and a wish by the governments to regulate knowledge in the face of globalisation and finally a further strengthening of the authority of science in modern society. The policy resulting from this new situation, relates to “policy aimed at facilitating the development of knowledge-intensive industries, and is about ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge workers’ ” (Rooney, Hearn, Mandeville & Joseph, 2003, p. xv). Further, the knowledge-related policy discourse has an engineering bent, as it fixes attention on scientific, technological and information infrastructure (Graham & Rooney, 2001 cited in Rooney et al., 2003). Rooney et al. (2003) critique the limited focus of knowledge related policy and argue for a deeper level of analysis that includes social structure and cultural values, in order for a more comprehensive vision of the knowledge society.
Author: Baljit Grewal, PhD Student, AUT University, Auckland

Free Knowledge Online: Ebooks on medical science

FreeBooks4Doctors: Some books useful for students in all disciplines. For example, look in the Statistics Book Section

Amedeo - The Medical Literature Service

On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research by the National Academy of Science in USA.

Some cool web 2.0 links

Image from WikipediaWeb 2.0 is currently the rage and never a day passes without some new and interesting ideas being implemented. Here are a few that have caught my eye today:

1. opensocial.org: Decommoditizing Social Networks By Connecting User Profiles Via OpenSocial
2. Searchme.com: visual search
3. publishing 2.0
4. pdfmenot: embed pdf files as flash (similar to scribd), and of course;
5. zemanta.com: a blogging helper add-on for Firefox that creates neat looking posts for blogger, typepad and wordpress

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Korea inaugurates world's first Ministry of Knowledge Economy

On 28 February the new government in South Korea inaugurated the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) - a world first. The new ministry was created under the Government Restructuring Plan under which the presidential transition committee announced that the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) will be abolished and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MoCIE) will be expanded to the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. Also, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) will be merged with the Ministry of Education. In the plan, the current government structure will be reduced to thirteen ministries and two agencies. According to the MKE website, "MKE incorporates certain functions that were previously the responsibility of other Ministries (Information and Communications, Science and Technology, Finance and Economy)".

Lee Youn Ho, the minister-in-charge of MKE remarked on its inauguration that MKE

"is charged with the ever-important task of upgrading Korea’s growth engines of industry and technology. .... our primary undertaking is to create a business-friendly environment that is less burdensome, more transparent, and absolutely welcoming to businesses, both domestic and foreign. I plan to eliminate counterproductive regulations that undermine corporate competitiveness, identify nuisances which impede investment, and establish a Ministry-wide system to resolve such problems. Our other pressing task at hand is to develop a comprehensive mid-to long-term vision to secure new growth engines for the nation. To achieve this goal I am implementing a three-pronged policy to support existing value-added industries, discover and foster next-generation industries, and strengthen the service industry."

Korea is not new to restructuring. It has a history of new knowledge policy initiatives being started everytime a new government takes over. It is also known for its informatization visions like IT839, e-Korea, Broadband IT Korea. Thanks to past strategic direction Korea has become East Asia's premier ICT hub. The challenge before MKE is to expand those gains into wider S&T, higher education and industry sectors. The creation of a supra-ministry with the aim to streamline the whole-of-government approach to knowledge economy carries the hopes of a nation. I deeply suspect that the new system is pro-chaebol and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.