Leading-edge enterprises have seen the future of e-knowledge, and they have jump shifted their vision and strategies as a result. Their targeted future is not a simple extrapolation of the past. But to get to their future, they had to start by building on and changing existing infrastructures, processes, competencies, and culture. Consider how the following leaders are building migration paths to the e-knowledge future:

• The University of Southern Queensland’s vision is to be a global leader in fifth generation distance learning, based on best practices in using powerful e-knowledge infrastructures that combine e-learning support and knowledge management tools. USQ is is developing the e-knowledge infrastructure and tools to support blended learning involving three modes: on-campus, off-campus, and online.
• The U.S. Department of Defense’s
  e-knowledge vision calls for every soldier accessing a seamless atmosphere of knowledge and learning to support current operations, problem-solving, and personal growth. DOD is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in e-learning and knowledge management infrastructures and practices, digitizing and repurposing content, and new kinds of relationships with technology partners.

• The Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists is guided and energized by a vision of a readily available body of knowledge and communities of practice for pharmaceutical scientists in academic, research, and practice settings through which learning and knowledge seeking will be fused. Due to the rapid velocity of change in pharmaceutical knowledge, these materials must be continually updated and repurposed.
• The Monterrey Tech System (ITESM) aims to be the leading learning provider in Latin America. Currently, it utilizes 30 interconnected campuses and 1,000 virtual classrooms, leveraging the efforts of 7,100 faculty exchanging syllabi, digital library, standardized courses, and evaluation. ITESM reaches ten different countries in Latin America.
• e-University in the United Kingdom attracts up to 50 participating universities to create online learning resources. e-University’s vision is to help each of these universities discover their individual migration paths to the deployment of e-learning and other e-knowledge tools.

Understanding future migration paths requires an understanding of three things:

1. how the Knowledge Economy’s imperatives will fuse learning and knowledge management and dramatically enhance their capabilities;
2. the manner in which expeditionary migration paths can be used to discover the precise combination of elements necessary for success in the e-knowledge future; and
3. the ability to track the primary elements of the emerging e-knowledge practice, both in one’s own enterprise and generally, in order to position for success.