“The supply of knowledge and the demand for knowledge often do not match because the worlds of the fact searching expert and the power struggling decision maker are too far apart. A new specialist, the knowledge broker, is needed to bridge the gaps between these worlds and thereby increase the productive use of knowledge in public decision making.”
(1) Michael Leenders
(2) Ron Meyer
“Information + structure = knowledge. Knowledge + judgment = wisdom. Living in the information age offers the electorate the opportunity for more knowledgeable choices. But without structure we might drown in a sea of information and without judgment make morally disputable choices, all while thinking we are blessed by mountains of data.”
(3) Herman Eijsackers
“It is not so much the problem ‘that everybody knows everything’, yet too many people thínk to know everything. Therefore, ‘knowledge assessment’ i.e. the valuation of information, is going to be a fundamental activity in the following years, regardless for which scientific, political or social group this is intended.”
Day One: Toward a Common Base
Realizing Knowledge Democracy requires shared understanding of the field of meanings that bring us together: knowledge, democracy, research. It is a form of boundary work that requires navigating information, brokering knowledge, negotiating communicative action, capitalizing distributed intelligence, and scaffolding lifelong learning.
(4) Coyan Tromp:
“A first step towards knowledge democracy is acknowledging the value of different kinds of knowledge.”
(5) Felix Janszen
“One of the challenges of Knowledge Democracy is to combine global, academic knowledge as it is produced at universities and research institutes with the local, practical knowledge of people to co-create new institutions and governance structures.”
6) Florian Keil
“Knowledge democracy is more than equal access to knowledge. It’s about the recognition and valuation of different types of knowledge…. Yet above all it’s about giving these different types of knowledge and the people who hold them a voice in everyday decision making.”Keyword C: Research
(7) Martin van der Gugten
“In my opinion notions of Democracy and Knowledge are so strongly connected that one could not survive without the other. In an information-flooded society as we live in, we have be sure that policymaking is based on well-tailored, validated information and applied knowledge. Otherwise our democratic future will be in the hands of populists and manipulators”.
(8) Roland Scholz
“A knowledge democracy asks for the support and the efficient utilization of different types of epistemics/knowledge, values/norms and discourses of society…. and dismantling of barriers between different knowledge systems (among others between sciences)…. Finding appropriate ways of integrating or relating knowledge from different disciplines in relation to different systems…different modes of thought, (e.g. analytic and intuitive thinking) interests and cultures….”
(9) Tore Tennøe
“A range of methods for involving citizens have been tested and tried, and are ready for mainstreaming. Moreover, web 2.0 provides us with tremendous opportunities for co-production, knowledge sharing, grass root initiatives, open government.”
(10) Rudy Rabbinge
“Knowledge democracy means better access and understanding of knowledge in different fields without full background information.”
(11) Janneke Hoekstra
“Knowledge democracy: everybody has access to abundant information and adds to it.”
(12) John Ryan
“Knowledge democracy is about approximating the free flow of information. It refers both to the production and consumption of information. Both are increasingly mediated by widely available, relatively inexpensive technologies, rather than by technologies embedded in traditional institutions. Thus democratic knowledge is often outside institutional filtering processes. This is both its strength and its weakness.
(13) Ovais Mangalwala
“EVERYONE has the right to access ALL information about EVERYTHING. The idea is fascinating and has transformed information dissemination but the demerits of this uncontrolled free flow, programs our minds in ways which are sometimes undesirable.”
(14) Scott Douglas
“Knowledge democracy can easily deteriorate into a soap opera transmitting nothing but gossip. It will require effective institutions to put the information to work without stifling the knowledge flow.”
(15) Alun Rhydderch
“Knowledge democracy means moving beyond ‘freedom of information’, to equip the public with the tools and the skills to use information as part of a stronger democratic process.”
(16) René Kemp
“Experts can be defined by what they know and … don’t know.”
(17) Hanns-J. Neubert
“In times of information overflow it is most important that all people are put into the position to gain and acquire knowledge in learning how to handle and integrate informational bits and pieces…. knowledge is not necessarily a ticket for the ability to contribute to democratic processes, it can even foster authoritarian developments …has to … lead to literacy.”
(18) Victor van Rij
“A true knowledge democracy is therefore based on availability of knowledge for everybody (open sources), transparency of knowledge acquisition processes (incl premises, assumption and biases) and “critical” knowledge education.“
(19) Erik van Slobbe
“An essential ingredient of knowledge democracy is an advanced capacity for social learning ….”
20) Marga Jacobs
“For collaboration between community groups trust is more important than IT.”