This is a major white paper sponsored by Bertelsmann and AOL Time Warner as a discussion document for the 21st Centeury Literacy Conference being held this week in Berlin. It is required reading for policy makers in learning, human resources and government. It is one of the few papers in any of these fields to explicitly make the connection between new forms of learning and new forms of government. And it represents not only a strong grasp of the potential new technology embodies but also some of the decisions administrators will have to make in order to realize that potential. The paper is in PDF format, so it is unreadable online, but at 102 pages, be prepared for a long print run. Do print it out, though, and keep it on your shelf as a reference; the appendice contain some thirty-five pages of best practice examples you will want to visit during your free time (hah!). The essay probably requires at some point a detailed and careful criticism, for while there is a lot of value in many of the recommendations, there is overall a greater emphasis in the paper on the responsibility of citizens (as opposed to, say, the empowerment of citizens). But no matter what you think of this paper, it is a solid read, well informed, authoritative and clearly written.
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