Lighting the Way: Knowledge Assessment in Prince Edward Island (1999)

Summary: Knowledge Assessment is a methodology created by the National Research Council at the request of the World Bank to evaluate a community's ability to acquire, diffuse, and utilize knowledge. It was conceived to assist developing countries or other jurisdictions to cultivate knowledge-based enterprises capable of generating wealth from knowledge and technology. Designed to be rapid and low cost, it relies on a role-playing venture capital model whereby a small number of visiting experts work with local producers, researchers, and others to explore the local culture, economy, and technical capa-bility in order to identify investment opportunities and possible barriers. The University of Prince Edward Island, representing the smallest province of Canada, agreed to collaborate with the National Academies to carry out the first pilot project to test the Knowledge Assessment methodology and at the same time use it to evaluate and to explore opportunities for developing the knowledge economy on the Island. Investment areas explored are chitin manufacture from lobster and crab shells, swine genetics, electronic commerce, wind tur-bine manufacture, and telemedicine.