Forms and Dynamics of Leadership for a Knowledge Society: the Quad

While there is ample writing on the structural components of the information or knowledge society, the elements of leadership have been underreported. This essay defines the knowledge society as consisting of structural, network and leadership elements, and concentrates on the latter, defined as crossectoral interactions among government officials, private managers, researchers and activists in civil society. When linked together into a four sided ‘quad’ relationship, these information champions together create the information revolution in Internet and other value-added activities. Based on field research in Brazil, China, Ghana and other countries, the study concludes that the more robust the ‘quad’ along several dimensions, the more successful is performance of the ICT sector. Innovation in local social architecture yields innovation in the technological infrastructure.