The recent transfer of title of a number of town camps in Alice Springs to the Commonwealth government provides an interesting example of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups around Australia may be able to achieve economic development. Following the announcement of the transfer Darryl Pearce - chief executive of the Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation (the native title representative body for Alice Springs) said that the transfer provided an opportunity for locals to obtain equity in their home and so give their children a better start in life. There may be a number of lessons to be drawn from this process for other groups around Australia - although we'll have to wait and see how things emerge over the coming months and years.

We've just finished speaking at the Gathering Wisdom Forum which is run by the First Nation's Health Council in Vancouver, Canada. Our talks were focused on Health Governance and Health Service Models. The key themes for us, and others presenting on our panels, was on how different indigenous groups are able to learn from one another. Great conference although a lot of work in front of the various First Nations in British Columbia and their Provincial and Federal partners.

 We've just got back from presenting at the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) conference in Edmonton. It was a great chance to meet people working for First Nation groups across Canada. We combined with a colleague of ours - Warren Weir - from the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan in presenting some of our work on strategic planning with indigenous groups across the Asia-Pacific.

Often when we talk to people about working in the Knowledge Economy they assume that we're just talking about IT organizations or new computer applications. This is a real problem as it automatically limits what it is that people see as constituting the Knowledge Economy. We see ourselves as an organization for which the Knowledge Economy is our raison d'etre. In the development community academics 'discovered' about thirty years ago that institutions mattered. Then, about five years ago people started talking about how people mattered too - that is without good people the best institutions in the world wouldn't do much.

The piece missing from all of this though is knowledge. Knowledge is that which flows through and around institutions and is used by people to make their institutions work - ideally as effectively as they can. This is where we see ourselves working - helping promote this flow of knowledge and thereby helping people and the organizations within which they work operate more effectively. While not a radical idea it is still an area which many people seem to miss. However, its an important part of of any organizations work and something which is keeping us increasingly busy (which is always a good thing in the middle of the global financial crisis). 

As we begin to develop the new web page we are trying to make the site as interactive as possible. In doing this we're going to start using the blogs as an active site of knowledge creation and dissemination.

This week as we begin to further populate the webpage we will create separate blogs for each of our specific subject areas. This blog will remain but will be used largely to discuss cross-cutting themes or issues to do with working in the knowledge economy and how, by working together, we can best transform knowledge into action.

Synexe is pleased to announce the launch of our new website. Our aim is to make our site a central hub for knowledge. We can help you make it happen.

With well established networks across Asia-Pacific and the Americas in the private, government, and non-government sectors, as well as a diverse staff with experience in managing large multi-country projects, Synexe is well situated to provide quality outcomes for its clients.