Technology and Changes in the Concept of the University: Comments on the Reinvention of the Role of the University East and West

Technology is a driver of social and economic institutions in the 21st with many consequences as yet unclear because of the rapidity of distribution across institutions. The speed of change and the scope of global communications have created alliances that alter organizational and institutional models as well as access to libraries, research, innovations. Universities, long immune to change by virtue of their role as societal institution, are challenged by technologies on all levels and are being reinvented with or without planned strategies. The extraordinary growth of means of communication, of access online to university courses, of new Internet-facilitated access to the vast resources of international libraries once held close to the smaller academic community, has exploded the concept of where knowledge resides and how it is to be accessed. New `brands´ of learning follow on what may be called broadly, an e-commerce model driven by new technologies and the rapidity of communications. The trend to alliances between the university, business, and information distribution technologies is seen as crucial to the survival of both in global networks of private and national universities alike. Alliances in a global economy alter organizational and institutional models. The growth of such operations as Wikipedia, which is user-driven rather than faculty-driven, is an example outside the framework of university-based resources. Connections, alliances, conversation and innovation tie the institutions of education, business, and national policies together in a bold new way bridging cultural boundaries and challenging them at the same time