Information Renaissance

Some good books for a course on the Information Renaissance

I have been working on the design of a course I'm calling
"Leadership for the Information Renaissance."

This course will be essentially comparative cultural studies
with a leadership and management emphasis,
noting the impact of information and communication technologies
as a catalyst for social change.

This course will develop a double perspective—the first objectives will be
to familiarize the learner with the era of the European renaissance
and its similarities and differences
with the current era of the information renaissance.

The second set of objectives is as important as the first:
to discourse on what leaders in the information renaissance need to know and to do—
a sort of contemporary Book of the Courtier, together by us as a course community,
taking the place of the original author Baldesar Castiglione—
a discourse on leadership attributes appropriate for our time.

The information outcome of the course for the learners will be a research report,
with historical sections on the European renaissance,
forecasts for “a history of the future” for our time and the coming generation,
and a practical guide--a type of management handbook--
for information renaissance leaders.

We’ll also use the capability of the Internet to build a group weblog like the successful
Information Renaissance weblog at Ball State University.

Below is a list of books that can be used for course readings:

Required:

Kenneth J. Atchity, ed., The Renaissance Reader: Firsthand Encounters with the Renaissance,
including letters, diaries, orations, autobiographies, essays, songs, poetry, and art.
New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Taichi Sakaiya. The Knowledge-Value Revolution, or, A History of the Future.
Tokyo and New York: Kodansha Publishers, 1991.

J. Thomas Wren, ed. The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages.
New York: Free Press, 1995.

Recommended:

Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, Scott D. Anthony, eds.
Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Frans Johansson. The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Tom Peters. Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1991.

Douglas S. Robertson. Phase Change: The Computer Revolution in Science and Mathematics.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Douglas S. Robertson. The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1998.

Tom J. Van Weert, ed.
Education and the Knowledge Society: Information Technology Supporting Human Development.
New York: Springer, 2006.

Posted by Jay Gillette at November 2, 2006 07:02 PM