Overview

Prologue

There is a shift of focus from "state action" to a broader field identified by policies, programs, strategies, projects, and tactics; the "practices" thus generated extend well beyond the traditional boundaries of the state apparatuses. Increasingly the production of knowledge comes to form a crucial focus of attention Social action increasingly revolves around and is directed toward the collection, classification, collation, compilation, calculation, and circulation of information ( Hunt, 1993:310).

The above contains within it the notion of change that has occurred in our society and the ways in which governments have increasingly become reliant on the gathering, formulating, organizing, disseminating and usage of information. In the emerging Information Society of the last thirty years "information" has become a commodity and an indispensable tool for government in its role of governance. With the rise of information technologies and the Internet, the concept of information management and the means by which information is a strategic tool for both government and citizen alike, have become of paramount importance. This changing climate of societal norms has, as a by-product, created an evolving discipline known as "knowledge management" or, a more recent term, "knowledge sharing".

Recent changes within governments, who have increasingly reorganized themselves to become more like the private sector, have altered the ways in which governments now govern. Also, new technologies are creating vast arrays of information holdings which citizens want to access. But that is just a small part of the wider discipline...