Quite similar considerations appear to apply to nations. Large and industrially powerful
countries can sometimes enoane very successfully in the further tAchnical development of
a partícufarproduct. TheSoviet Uníon'swork on jet engines is a case in point. But in those
areas where unexpected cónj unctions of ideas are of paramount importance, the Russians do
less well and theír technical lags have in recent years been an important aspect of their
relations with the West in general and the United States in particular. As
knowledge-intensive activity becomes an increasingly important element in any
assessment of national power, so, paradoxically, it is lessand less usefui for any nation to
try to hoard knowledge. Information, unlike money, deteriorates if it is locked away, but
like money, the velocity of its circulation is at least as important as the quantity of it
which is available.
The second group of reasons relates to the sociology of international scientific and
technical communication. Two concepts are of particular iinportance. One is the centre
of excellence. The other is the invisible college. It seems likely that neither can ex ist
without the other. No country is likely to be able to encourage research successfully
unless it establishes at least some centres of excellence. in the fields in which it has a
particular interest or where it happens to possess a group of leading specialist. In an age
where team rather than individual research is the norm, such centres of excellence fulfil a
variety of functions. They provide the infraestructure for the \MJrk of leading specialist.
They are the focus of communication for administrators, researchers in other fields and
interested persons abroad. They can create a reputation and become a magnet for able
people who wish to work in the field. But the essence of the matter is the recognition by
the international scientific community that the centre is indeed a centre of excellence in
the field concerned. Only then can it become a focus for communication, effort and
people which will allow
it
to be sure that it commands, or has access to,
all
important
sources of information in the field.
A crucial element in the organization's acceptance as a centre of excellence is its
possession of a few specialists whQ are members of the invisible colleJe of their discipline
or field of study; that limited group of persons recognised by their peers around the
\MJrld as being the leaders in the field and competent to pass upon the work of others.
Such a college is, of course, flexible in membership and indulges in a constant exchange
of ideas. It does not remain the invisible college except by remainirg open to the best·of
the new ideas and the new meno Conversely, no-one who does not or cannot oontribute
interestíng ideas to these exchanges is likely to become a member or to remain one for
long. It is a condition of membership that one should be able to make a contribution to a
free easy and informal as well as formal exchanges of ideas and information with
colleagues in other countries, just as it is a reward of such membership to be kept
constantly au fait with new ideas through the same processes of consultation, discussion,
visits and correspondence. Any government, therefore, which attemps to' restrict
information flows can easily condemn its citizens, however brilliant and hardworkirg, to
rJrop out of any such college of which they might be members. And any person who has
dropped out of the college, or failed to gain access to it, is not worth writirg to regularly
t hough he may, occasíonally, be asked to a seminar.
This means that local professionals in a country attemoting to create a centre of
excellence must not only be sufficiently experienced and knowledgeable to be
adequately to process, interpret and exploít the information which the centre aa:¡uires
from elsewhere. To have a real access in the great professiona I \MJr Id outside their co untry
they must also measure up in the judgement of foreigh peers to whom local political and
social imperatives are quite irrelevant.
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