INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OF THE NEW INFORMATION AGE

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OF THE NEW INFORMATION AGE Dr Frits Pannekoek Director, Information Resources University of Calgary Calgary, Canada Information Technology and the Knowledge Workers of the New Information Age Most workers in knowledge based or research and development organizations have the sophisticated skills to find and manipulate information in the new digital environment However, studies indicate that until users have undertaken at least a research-based postsecondary masters or doctoral degree they not known how to use the key digital or indeed print information resources without specialist intervention.1 In the petroleum industry, for example these could include Petroleum Abstracts, GeoRef, Geobase, Enviroline, Compendex, Applied Science and Technology Abstracts, SPE papers, Science Citation Indexes, and various business databases Any company dependent upon technology in its business activities should have a similarly relevant set of information at its disposal Often information exchanges and needs of these technology intensive companies are made on corporate, institutional or discipline based intranets, controlled by senior management, and/or if there is a strong scientific component, by a few senior Ph.D scientists These observations are serious particularly given the profound change in the nature and composition of information and its delivery In the twenty years following 1975, electronic databases have grown in number from 301 to 10,338 In 1975 these databases contained about 52 million records; in 1997 they contained 11.3 billion records Of these, the single largest subject is business (27 per cent); while the next most significant is science and technology (17 percent).2 A growing number, at least 60 per cent in 1997, are now produced in the United States Use is also increasing rapidly In 1974 there were about 750,000 searches; in 1996 there were about 82.5 million This is reflected in database sales, which have increased from $40 million in 1979 per year to $1.5 billion per year in 1996 It is also important to note that while in the early years, datasets were largely generated by government, now they are overwhelmingly provided by the private Eileen Pritchard and Paula R Scott, Literature Searching in Science, Technology, and Agriculture (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996) Martha E Williams, “Highlights of the Online Database Industry and the Internet 1998,”19th Annual National Online Meeting Proceedings 1998, edited by Martha E Williams (New York: Information Today, 1998), pp 1-2 This contains an excellent statistical summary from which all statistics in this paragraph are drawn sector Of concern should be the fact that about 90 per cent of the data base sales are controlled by six to ten key vendors What is also important to note is that while in the late 1970’s data base content was largely statistical or raw data, today it is over 50 percent full text, searchable and in English The revolution is real and profound This revolution can have serious consequences not only for the sciences but also for the “grass roots” development of technological innovation In the very early years of the Canadian oil and gas industry (1890 to 1945), for example, most of the innovations in gas processing were made in the field The technologists generously adapted engineering drawings drafted in distant urban centers to fit local conditions However, as the companies grew in size and as knowledge became increasingly complex, centrally controlled and bureaucratized, field-based innovation ceased The current hope is that new ubiquitous information technologies will restore greater capacity and responsibility for innovation to all professional and technical staff The technology should remove the shackles of distance, and the tyranny of structures derived from educational status, and organizational hierarchies The gurus who are daily outlining new promises of the technology driven information age suggest this democratization of information as an immediate inevitable outcome.4 A networked environment encourages employees to take the initiative, by gathering information, consulting with experts, and solving problems collaboratively It transcends the traditional barriers of departments, management hierarchies, and even company boundaries.5 And on the surface this would seem to be a truism The literature does suggest significant change, but that it is driven by a reaction to the new technology, rather than by any careful integrated planning, reflective of the internal, national and professional cultures in which knowledge-based organizations find themselves For the new information technologies to have real impact, significant commitment to information literacy See for example Neil Barrett, The State of the Cybernation (London: Kogan Page Limited, 1996) Nerissa Nelson, “Can Computer-Mediated Communication Democratize the Workplace?” Information Outlook 4: (June 2000) Mary J Cronin, Doing Business on the Internet How the Electronic Highway is Transforming American Companies (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994), p 11 initiatives and to the thoughtful social re-engineering of the information components of these cultures will have to take place Today the flow of high-end refereed scientific information, or raw information from databases, tends to be top down, mediated by “knowledge brokers,” or in large institutions by information experts The staffs who implement technical decisions are generally not fully engaged in the process of securing the information required for the best solutions This has been partially altered by intranet and digital technology However, these actions have other as yet undetermined consequences Most of the technical, financial and management databases are rooted in North American culture and are in English The impact of this now readily available material on indigenous cultures had not been fully understood The problems can be mitigated were there to be a healthy dialog on their intranets in indigenous languages respecting individual traditions To date there are few instances of this happening.6 It has been assumed that information technology will transform “creation, ” that is the process by which new ideas that have human and/or commercial value will be generated Yet unless the traditional path of knowledge creation is defined, it is difficult to determine technology’s impact, and more important how technology can be managed to demystify it and to maximize its utility There is a debated and recognized literature in the information sciences on the sociology of knowledge creation The arguments are complex, but extremely important in an understanding of how technology is filtered by culture and how this impacts the creation of knowledge It is clear from the literature that the environments that create knowledge differ amongst universities, governments, and industry Some are highly efficient and effective, others are not As important it is also clear that host culture and organizational size are also critical variables F Pannekoek, “The Commodification of Information and the Marginalization of Indigenous Culture,” Paper delivered at TEND 2000, Abu Dhabi, April 2000 Members of an “invisible college” generate most “high end” knowledge, regardless of organization, in some way This “college” is a matrix of scholars, largely Ph.D.’s, who tend to exchange information, share ideas, and act as mutual intellectual and sometimes social support, generally, regardless of employer This “invisible” college has been the foundation of modern scientific discovery and has ensured that new knowledge is reflective of what has gone on before The “invisible” college ensures that new ideas are the product of informal collaboratives, that ideas are shared, commented upon, and discussed well before publication Indeed “publication” in senior journals is the end of this continuum of constant validation Several studies of this process have found that when informal “information and knowledge” communications are tracked from laboratory conversations, to discussions with colleagues, and to the informal sharing of papers, that generally 10 to 15 % of those involved in a field are key validators or influencers In the case of psychology for example, the majority of Ph.D.’s publish in a particular journal only once Also only 10 per cent of the articles in key journals are cited frequently over the years It could be argued then that if there are 10,000 authors in the field, and only 10 percent of the articles are cited on the average once or more a year, only 1000 scholars, and probably even fewer are discipline leaders There will be variations on other disciplines, but all evidence the “informal” college, and all have some informally recognized peer recognition system It is then a few key members within the informal college who influence others.7 The role and composition of the many “invisible colleges” varies significantly from technical college, to government, to university to corporation Generally the colleges can be ranked in order of ability to influence the creation and assimilation of new knowledge The doctoral universities with significant programs hold the “key influencers” and “validators” of the process of discovery and validation The smaller the university, the less likely their faculty or students will influence or create new leading ideas The graduates of smaller universities tend to publish in journals with lesser prestige, and be on the “outside” of the invisible college While the journals themselves are key sources of information, many scientists source the increasingly complex and voluminous literature See Part “The Structure and Dynamics of Science Information Flow” in Belver C Griffith, ed Key Papers in Information Science (Washington: American society for Information Science, 1980) through knowledge brokers, generally key colleagues It is not an infrequent occurrence at the University of Calgary library, to have senior scholars ask for an author citation list for a new sub field, just so they can source senior members of the “invisible” college for a new field of interest In the instance of workers with undergraduate degrees, the “invisible” college takes on a different structure These workers, especially in the professions, tend to secure new information or undertake new developments based on coworker input At the same time the undergraduate degree professionals particularly in the corporate and government world to value “vendors” of key technological solutions as reliable sources of information Generally these vendors are intellectual peers and tend to have been “information” brokers themselves within the corporate or government work place Their skills at communication and empathetic validation make them natural “information hubs.” Generally then, within every organization there is a single individual who is known for his/her ability to secure information and who is known as a “broker.” These people rarely read or contribute to the literature However these information brokers know how to acquire information, and pass it on within a context of reliability Generally if knowledge information systems are re engineered, it is critical that these information “brokers” be included These are precisely the people who should be involved in organizational intranets If they have been effective, they will know and understand the information needs of the work place And depending upon national culture, the information brokers, might be the “youthful” new graduate, or in other cases the “elder” statesman In research and development laboratories it might be a key laboratory technician or in some cases a key scientist The “leading” expert will not always be the “information” broker Even in organizations where there are professional information mediators, they are most influential where they team up with the informal “brokers.” The complexities and social rootedness of the informal approach to knowledge acquisition, creation and validation is carried through into the government and corporate sectors However the connection of the government and corporate sector to the invisible college would appear to be more tangential and to diminish over time In most disciplines, and there are exceptions, there is proportionally less participation in the “invisible college” by government and corporate Ph.D’s The reasons would seem to be self-evident First in the case of the corporate sector, those that have significant research and development teams, are insistent that innovation and attendant new information remain proprietary until such time as it is ready for patent As important, while the individual scientists may still see themselves in their first years of their profession as members of the “informal college” their success does not depend upon it This however is not uniformly true, and often depends upon the nature of linkages between the university and the corporation It is interesting to note that in the corporate sector the nature of the linkages to the appropriate “informal college,” has less relevance to the success of innovation than the size of the corporation It would appear that new small start up research and development based corporations better than larger corporations Why this might be has not been the subject of much study yet, although perhaps the small aggressive teams are effective because they know how to access and share information, without the intervention of knowledge “brokers.” There is also lingering suspicion however that the differing productivity is in part due to the degree of control attempted by management on the flow of ideas, and the enforced conformity which generally marks larger and more hierarchical organizations.8 Government departments and government research institutes are often charged in their mandates with innovation In Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, the Alberta Research Council, or the National Research Council are cases in point The employees of these organizations within tend to be full participants of the “informal college.” However, not infrequently the demands of “policy” conformity, parliamentary accountability for the expenditure of funds, and the demands for information control Narissa Nelson, “Can Computer Mediated Commications Democratize the Workplace?” Information Outlook, 4:6 (June, 2000), p 19 ff mitigate the ability to participate as “knowledge brokers” in the “informal college” except in their own units Most important of all, however is the role in the bureaucracy of the worker with the undergraduate degree Most are “desk officers” responsible for the development of policy, and for the management of social and economic change Their need for the best information is critical However like their scientific counterparts, most receive their information from information brokers, that is individuals who appear to be the best informed, in their organizations Most, even if they have access to the scholarly literature rarely have the time to use and assimilate the material.9 Studies undertaken recently at the university indicate that undergraduate students are modeling behavior that will be repeated in the work place The majority for example finds e-mail connection with the faculty member one of the more effective means to access information This is slightly less important than internet-sourced information At the University of Calgary, students use internet material 63% of the time to complete research projects In the instance of Faculty it is only 35%.10 If workers believe that their mentors and the internet will be the primary source for information for the creation of knowledge, then employers, if they want to be successful, will have to acquire or create e-based information and ensure the involvement of senior information “brokers” in their information dissemination strategies The cost will be considerable – but so might the returns The conclusion that becomes obvious is that the traditional intellectual hierarchies engendered by the medieval culture of the universities persist and are still being passed on to the work place It should be a frightening prospect that graduates of Universities with rudimentary information literacy skills are relying on “unreferereed” “dumbed down” information from the internet as the foundation for the solutions to complex problems Given the demands of the government workplace for instant information to solve instant problems can it be otherwise? If new scholarly work impacts government decision making, it is Hazel Hall, “Online information sources: tools of business intelligence?” Journal of Information Science, 26:3, p 141 10 Julie Kearns, Keith Scharnau, and John Cole, “Learning Support Needs: What University of Calgary Students Need to be More Effective Learners” (Calgary: University of Calgary Information Resources, 1999), Table 12 because of the occasional link that may exist with the “informal college” through the senior mentors The niceties of intellectual integrity are also being eroded Can one imagine several years ago a corporation offering its employees the “Thief of the Year” award to the one who has “stolen” the best idea? It should be acknowledged that the focus of this paper has been on the creation of new knowledge used largely in research and development initiatives, or in policy development All organizations also have the need for management/operational information systems, which might include client information, staff data, financial data, and performance information The creation and use of this information is obviously critical, and since these needs often drive the technology systems of the corporation, the culture of the groups requiring this information can determine the communication and information protocols for an entire corporation Often the security and privacy needs of corporate management information system, and the “propaganda” purposes of the marketing systems are at variance with the need for openness and continued questioning of research and development systems Will, or have the new technologies transformed the use of information and the creation of knowledge as just described There are innumerable books that suggest that the revolution is sweeping us along now! Neil Barrett in The State of the Cyernation Cultural Political and Economic Implications of the Internet offers typical observations He sees increasing democratization of the work place, the increase in sharing of expertise, the erosion of national, and the elimination of discipline borders This vision is one of incredible optimism and economic opportunity Without doubt there is ample evidence to support this vision But what specifically has changed in the cultures, which impact how we access and process information? Have we changed anything but the volume of material, particularly at the low end of the continuum, or the speed of access? First, has the still, somewhat closed, “informal college” been changed? Will new scholars be able to by pass the keepers of the gates of the “informal college?” Will new electronic communications replace the print and -e journals controlled by the “informal college?” The reality shows that tradition still has a strong grip on scholarly communication and that the “informal college” if anything will likely strengthen its hold This is proven in a recent study undertaken by several University of Calgary social scientists and its Information Resource directorate for the Social Science and Humanities Federation of Canada on scholarly communication.11 The majority of scholars in the humanities and social sciences in Canada (a very highly wired nation) are prepared to draw upon WEB based resources to complete their own research, however they are not inclined to have their own material placed in WEB based publications The greatest reluctance comes from the real or imagined perceptions that WEB based scholarly journals are not reviewed by “status” peers Electronic journals, despite their growing numbers, are still considered low status alternatives As important, although this was not articulated by the respondents as frequently, is the fact that electronic journals are not always abstracted in the critical citation indices, and that they are not always archived Simply put, because of this consideration, scholars not feel that their publications in these new e creations would have the status required for promotion and recognition in their organization or profession The prediction of the gurus that the informal academy will be broadened and that those senior in the informal academy will lose their paramountcy has also not happened either These predictions were based on the assumption that senior scholars maintained their hegemony through the illegitimate control of the refereeing mechanisms Some have advocated that WEB mechanisms like pre-print servers would reform scholarship and make “discoveries” immediately available While there is an increase in sharing of preliminary findings with a wider international network in the informal college through email and a discussion of ideas through various “list servs,” there is no indication that this has resulted in the erosion of the “informal” college Indeed it can be argued that if anything it has strengthened it While the internet has incredible possibilities for openness, there is an equal opportunity through structured intranets controlled by the 11 Keith Archer, “Electronic Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Preliminary Report on Survey findings” (Calgary: Unpublished paper for the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Feb 3, 2000) “informal colleges,” to refine and restrict access.12 Even where this is not formally done, in Canada and the United States many of the humanities “list servs” require certain post graduate academic qualifications before they will allow participation Even on these restricted access discussion groups, certain messages are taken more seriously than others are Those who were previously on the margins, continue to be so Their contributions and queries are simply not taken seriously And, if the “noise” made by those struggling to get recognition is too great those who are senior simply discontinue their involvement.13 While social science and humanities research disseminated through serials has not moved to the WEB, a significant number of scientific journals have a digital as well as print format However, it is not clear that WEB based journals have radically added to the numbers reading the journal Anecdotal evidence suggests that if anything traditional mediation by knowledge brokers has increased There are several probable reasons for this First, electronic journals are expensive, and cannot be afforded by either individuals, or their employing organizations no matter their wealth The situation had become so serious in Canada, a small but reasonably wealthy country, that only one university can really afford all available scientific e-material Now Canada is experimenting with national site licensing of electronic product so that at least its sixtyfour senior universities can have access to the most critical full text materials and indices Second, many individuals not have the equipment required to access the higher-end complex databases, particularly those dealing with geo spatial information Third, where institutions have a complete or almost complete suite of data, there is now so much material, that no one individual can digest it Fourth, those seeking information have to have sophisticated information literacy skills to negotiate through the over 10,380 databases and their 11.3 billion records which are likely to grow by a factor of 200 per cent again in the very near future The information resources specialists at the University 12 Mike Crandall, “Intranet Case Study: Boeing,” in Martha E Williams, ed., Proceedings of the Nineteenth National Online Meeting (New York: Information Today, 1998), pp 85-94 See also Beth Schultz, “Drilling down into an intranet,” Network World, 13:24 (June 10, 1996) deals with the Schlumberger Ltd, a oil service company, intranet 13 Nelson, Norris “Can Computer-Mediated Communication Democratize the workplace?” Information Outlook (June 2000), pp 12-22 Calgary have noted that if anything that the reliance on the one person in a particular discipline who is the “keeper of the knowledge” has become even more important And where digital information is available in the same place where expert mediation is available, reference activities will increase dramatically That is certainly the case at the University of Calgary which in 1999 developed a leading edge facility which fully integrated print, image and digital information and the technology and expertise to access information regardless of form.14 But to suggest that this has resulted in an information literate, discerning undergraduate population is not necessarily the case either Studies at the University of Calgary on undergraduate learning needs have indicated that while well over sixty percent of undergraduates feel they can get all of the information they need from the internet, about forty percent feel they lack the skills needed to retrieve that information Since this number doesn’t include those who feel they have the skills but in reality not, this is a frightening prospect since there is an accompanying unsubstantiated suspicion that most of the information needs subsequent to graduation will also be secured from the internet Perhaps what should be taken from the University of Calgary study is that university graduates will demand instant information gratification, and that those institutions and companies who are able to provide it in a popular inter or intra net format may be the most productive What this also indicates is that the creation of legitimate, easily digestible information in digital format will result in greater use of information That being said, there is so much information, and no search engine can efficiently discriminate, that the role of the individual mediator will continue to be important 15 He/she will continue to suggest the most relevant URL’s and the methods for securing the best information quickly So has anything really changed, other than a new preference for a format which offers instant gratification? 14 Information Commons Team, “Information Commons Fall Term Report,” (Calgary: University of Calgary Information Resources January 2000), pp 31 15 Stephen e Arnold and Erik S Arnold, “Search Engines; Lost and Found in Cyberspace,” in Martha E Williams, ed., Proceedings of the Nineteenth National Online Meeting (New York: Information today), pp 37-53 If the internet has not yet radically changed the research culture of organizations, it is beginning to have a real impact on post degree continuous learning, so critical to knowledge based organizations Most resident based universities are feeling threatened by the digital distance education providers, and by corporate intranet universities, of which the most famous is probably that of British Aerospace These providers can offer WEB based, individually paced courses especially created for the needs of any particular organization Through electronic information portals, the learners can have access to all the material the course owner feels the student needs to complete While largely confined to professional course based postgraduate learning in business or public administration, it is spreading to the sciences and engineering as well Organizations can pay a content expert a significant sum of money, secure the services of the ubiquitous learning expert, and develop courses tailored to specific needs with a shelf live of five to ten years This could allow for a large number of simultaneous learners, “taught” by low cost content assistants The theory is that this will free senior content specialists for research and development, target learning more effectively, and eliminate the “waste” of time that individual discovery takes And there is truth in this, although without careful consideration it could destroy the “team” that human interaction in the learning process builds Others will argue it would also lead to the “dumbing” down of the knowledge organization Changes to courses will happen less frequently because of cost, leading to fewer instances of leading edge research being immediately introduced Not that it would be difficult to alter the course, only that there would be a controllable cost The increasing imperative for information literacy skills will also not likely be accommodated since most support information will be in “electronic “ packages There is no doubt that the “just for you” learning environment will see higher satisfaction ratings If the new “packaged learning modules” might threaten to “dumb down” information, there are other trends that threaten to the same thing Past habits by government and corporations of relying of the nearby university collections and expertise will become a phenomena of the past Information aggregators, who have transformed print to digital information, tend to license rather than sell information Even if the post secondary institutions wanted to assist government and corporate research, their licenses increasingly prevented this It is possible for corporations to lease access to literally thousands of journals and databases, and make available to all of its employees the most sophisticated data and information that exists on the planet Anecdotal evidence suggests that few knowledge-based companies subscribe to the sophisticated high-end information Often specialists or consultants, who may have access to a single database, or individuals with “information connections” secure what is required This seems to work well, but it cannot continue particularly as copyright issues are being resolved increasingly in favor of the creator rather than the user What may well happen in the next few years as smaller start-up companies find that the information they need is increasingly restricted, there will be pressure for the nation state to acquire “national” licenses to this information for all potential users When this happens, the ability to secure information will not be at issue, rather the issue will be the ability of an organization’s knowledge workers to retrieve and manipulate the best data Another issue in the social sciences in particular, will be the compromises that may have to be made when political, academic and research agendas collide In the new age where some nations can offer their citizens complete access to commercial databases, corporate intranets will become increasingly important This is where, it is hoped, employees will discuss technical issues and collectively resolve technical problems There are instances where these have been successful, however, in some cases intranets have become “empty nets,” particularly where the culture of the organizations misinterpreted If the traditional informal information mediator has been left out of the process, the intranet will likely find little real use, since he/she will continue in their informal very influential role Any attempt to persuade professional degree holders (i.e engineers and other technology experts) to participate in intranet technical discussion teams may also not always be successful, since their culture is once of accepting information not providing it Intranets also tend to exclude other traditional sources of information, for example, the vendors The “informal college” is also sometimes not included, given any organization’s penchant for using the new technology to create rather than eliminate boundaries Since most information based organizations restrict access to and control participation in their intranets, the only way real exchange will take place is through the ‘informal colleges.” So really has anything changed! There is a belief that the ability to share information across boundaries has created a new cybernation But evidence suggests otherwise It is instructive to look at patents, and the number of “foreign” patents registered The majority of American and Japanese patents are issued to nationals whether living at home or abroad There are relatively few patents granted to “foreigners.” There is also a tendency, although not universal, to centralize research and development in large corporations The point is that the freedom and chaos of invention that was the promise of the internet has yet to fully materialize It may be that where there is infinite chaos of information, there will be greater tendency to gravitate to the comfort of control.16 And the influence of the “informal college” to mediate and validate information needs will grow even stronger The role of the “information mediator” will become more and more important, not less A last point that should be made is that increasingly technical knowledge is transmitted in English Most of the information aggregators produce their materials in English because the cash aggregators (i.e the large corporations and universities) conduct most of their business and research in that language This will mean that those nations who want to undertake scientific and technical work within their “national” cultures will likely be at a disadvantage If there has been capitulation for the most part to English in the scientific and technical world, the capitulation has not yet happened in the social sciences and humanities, although I would argue that is about to happen The information aggregators require considerable capital to transform existing material into digital form or to create new databases in indigenous languages Since there is generally not enough cash aggregated by non-English language universities or corporations, high-end information in indigenous language will be decreasingly available This will only be reversed if national government take the initiative in the creation of digital materials, or in the conversion of existing cultural materials However, the prospects of that happening are diminishing 16 Zvi Griliches, ed R&D, Patents and Productivity (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984) p 93 and Jack N Behrman and William A Fischer, Overseas R&D Activities of Transnational Companies (Cambridge: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1980) daily If national scholars, technologists and scientists cannot find their cultures validated in the information sources they use to generate new knowledge, that culture and the role of its research establishments will surely be marginalized Conclusions: Digital technologies have allowed for an increase of control of commodifed information This high-end information will continue to increase significantly in cost as information aggregators assume roles as data, information and knowledge brokers This will be tempered by individual professional organizations attempting to create and to mediate their own refereed information The vulnerability of highly specialized information sources to the financial blandishments of the aggregators will increase with the value of the information Traditional processes of acquiring and transmitting information have not changed significantly The “invisible college” persists and indeed shows signs of tightening its grip as the information world becomes increasingly unmanageable and chaotic The amount of information available to knowledge workers has increased dramatically in the digital world, but the sophistication of workers to select and create has not kept pace This has reinforced the tendency to use informal information brokers or mediators Only the very large organizations have designated information specialists on staff The dominance of English in science and technology has meant an increasing shift to Euro American cultural norms in information data basis and organization If national governments not begin to notice the same shift in the humanities and social sciences digital technologies will press for the use of English in these areas as well Cultural differentiation based on language or approach to information will diminish The internationalization of the invisible college has not diminished the concentration of expertise in fewer hands Just as senior scholars at senior universities control the informal academy, senior “r and d” professionals control knowledge validation in the corporate world New knowledge that is not validated by these structures will be marginalized Organizations will support post degree continuous learning with WEB based instruction However rather than nurturing an ability for individual to be self-learners, there will be an increasing tendency to “homogenize” information into modules required by organizations to achieve their goals The differentiation of research cultures amongst national cultures will increasingly diminish Acknowledgements I would like to thank Peggy White, the University of Calgary, Head Science and Engineering Unit, Access Service, Information Resources, and Claudette Cloutier, Head, Gallagher Library of Geology, University of Calgary for their insights and comments Bibliography Archer, Keith “Electronic Publishing - the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Preliminary Report on Survey Findings.” Unpublished report prepared for the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Feb 3, 2000, 25pp Barrett, Neil The State of the Cybernation Cultural, Political and Economic Implications of the Internet London: Kogan Page Limited, 1996 Behrman, Jack N and Frischer, William A Overseas R&D Activities of Transnational Companies Cambridge: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1980 Bradley, Stephen P., Hausman Jerry A and Nolan Richard L “Globalization and new technology,” Harvard Business Review, Vol 71, No 2, March – April 1993, p Cronin, Mary J Doing Business on the Internet: How the electronic Highway is Transforming American 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