Where is information society, it is lost in the knowledge society: Survival issues for developing countries in the knowledge society and need of knowledge management initiatives in the education sector

This paper is built around the theme, that world is switching from the information society to the knowledge society. The issue of the digital divide between the information rich and information poor countries roused in the information society could not be resolved yet and it is perceived that this is going to be widened in the knowledge society. So to bridge this and many other gaps between developed/most favored countries and the developing countries, the later have to focus on the uplifting of their education sector. They should make themselves ready for entering in the knowledge society. The paper also proposes for the developing countries to adopt the Library Knowledge Management Center (LKMC) with the needed modifications for boosting their education sector. The paper is based on the literature review and personal interviews. For interviews, a purposive sample of the higher education professionals from developing countries was taken (N=8). The interviewees were asked about their general perceptions about knowledge society and their awareness about the challenges related to this emerging paradigm. The results show that interviewees' perceptions about knowledge society and its impact on developing world were varied. However, they anticipated many challenges which the developing world could face. They agreed with the idea of using KM strategies for higher education institutes for making them ready to face the challenges of the knowledge society. They also agreed with the applicability and effectiveness of LKMC model for higher education institutes of the developing world.