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To introduce this “all review” issue, comprising a diverse mix of volumes reviewed by a broad spectrum of individuals.

This article calls into question the future viability of conventional print publishing in general, and the continued use of academic journals both for the dissemination of current research and as the primary means of assessing the work of academics for the purpose of promotion and tenure. It further suggests that the world of clicks and bricks is merging, and that there will be a competitive struggle to determine the value of various paths for knowledge dissemination.

The article suggests that, with the introduction of electronic transmission and storage of knowledge – cheaply, securely, interactively and readily accessible – the future market for, and use of, traditional academic journals needs serious reconsideration and repurposing.

The article provides a challenge to both The Academy and its co‐dependent publishing industry to openly address the techno‐economic realities confronting each, and suggests that much that is currently being done in response to the emerging internet world simply involves the superficial conversion of “bricks” to “clicks,” rather than an honest effort to deal with the transformational issues and opportunities at hand.

Reflecting on the forces that produced the first universities 800 years ago provokes consideration of today's universities at the start of the new millennium. The paper complements Snyder's critique by suggesting that higher education engage in an exacting review of its most cherished assumptions, from the categorical definitions of disciplines to the fundamental structure of its pedagogy.

Comparative historical research fuels a conceptual examination of the university today. It adopts Snyder's view that higher education is currently adrift in fulfilling its academic mission and sustaining itself in a competitive environment. This approach yields a much more dramatic range of future plausibilities for contemporary universities than do more conventional extrapolations.

Rearranging schools and departments will not solve its problems, nor will it make much of a contribution to the state of the world. But digging deep into the wellsprings of knowledge, learning, and wisdom, and engaging in the great work of harmonizing the university with the emerging needs of its era and the concomitant forces of social change, can only energize the culture of higher education.

The article has important implications for strategic planning in higher education. It argues that universities will become increasingly irrelevant if they fail to recapture the spirit of exuberance, intellectual discovery, and social relevance evidenced by the earliest universities. This can be achieved by reassessing the university's mission and social role, utilizing technology to accelerate the learning process, and rethinking disciplinary definitions to reflect the explosive growth of knowledge and changes in methodologies in virtually every academic field. The most enduring transformation will begin with a dramatic shift in program content and pedagogy rather than reliance upon organizational restructuring.

A historically‐grounded vision of the university's current creative potential establishes a reference frame that bestows the freedom to transcend linearly progressed trends. The university can then be re‐imagined as a vital transformative and healing institution uniquely suited to its mission in an era rife with anxiety, uncertainty, and risk.

This article aims to present a synopsis of inertially‐driven future demographic, economic and technologic realities that will predictably alter the marketplace operating environment for post‐secondary education during the next 10 to 15 years. The article also seeks to explore a detailed scenario speculating on multiple implications for the university as it simultaneously confronts all of the predictably changing elements of its operating environment.

A convergence of published long‐term demographic, economic and technologic trends and forecasts is examined that has begun to produce structural and operational changes throughout the business world, setting in motion five fundamental transformations in the context of all enterprises: the globalization of the economy; the information of work; the disaggregation of organizations; the maturation of the workforce; and the reconfiguration of employment. The practical implications of these long‐term realities for industrial era universities are described, and a scenario for the future evolution of the “post‐industrial university” is presented, modeled on – and in consonance with – transformations already under way throughout corporate enterprise.

Reliably forecastable aspects of the University's operating environment, including a shortage of qualified faculty, stagnant personal income and baccalaureate markets, mounting competition from for‐profit schools and an explosion in new applied knowledge in every field and discipline are likely to coerce innovation and change in higher education in spite of institutional intransigence, necessity being the mother of invention.

A scenario based on multiple statistically valid forecasts does not constitute an infallible prediction of the future, but it does present decision makers and strategic planners with sound benchmarks for the pace and scale of change that may reasonably be expected, as well as raising issues and posing options that routine linear extrapolations are unlikely to have revealed.

Presents an historic model of technologic maturation and examines five emerging information technologies projected to achieve marketplace pre‐eminence during the next three to five years that will pose transformational implications for traditional classroom‐based teacher‐mediated education.

This article aims to encourage universities to go beyond the significant obsession with the technical advances of the knowledge society and carefully assess both the epistemological and ethical principles that govern their existence. Ultimately, these principles will shape the future well being of both universities and civilization itself.

Provides a useful discussion on the future of universities.

The advance of modern technology is assessed within a context of philosophical assumptions such as promethean successism, platonic order, Cartesian rationalism, Newtonian certainty and modern materialism which are challenged by the uncertainties, complexities, and subjectivity promoted by existentialism, quantum physics, and chaos theory. The quest for wisdom takes us beyond the confines of the knowledge society to a values‐based, open, humble, caring and sharing community experience.

People, institutions and communities need to carefully assess their future development in terms of a carefully considered code of ethics and a clear understanding of the limits of their capacity for knowledge.

The thesis is not uncommon. The important difference is in the wide contextual and conceptual perspective together with a focus on urgency as we enter a very different future shaped by nanotechnology, biotechnology, computer science and robotology.

The purpose of this paper is to present a structure for identifying complexity that is not needed in an enterprise, and describe a methodology for eliminating it. Whether it is process complexity, product complexity, or organizational complexity, investments in managing higher levels of complexity often offer businesses significant value by enabling them to offer more and better products and services to a broader range of customers. However, along with higher levels of complexity has come an increased requirement to distinguish between that complexity which is needed and that which is needless.

This paper first presents a structure for categorizing different kinds of complexity, with a detailed focus on needless complexity that is categorized into four types. Next, specific factors are developed that can be used to identify needless complexity in an organization. Finally, a methodology is presented that organizations can utilize in order to eliminate needless complexity.

Needless complexity can be created where it never should have existed in the first place, and other times needless complexity exists as an historical relic left over from a time when it actually was needed. Using a structured approach, needless complexity can be identified and eliminated to yield significant business benefits.

This paper provides a framework for differentiating needless complexity from needed complexity, and assessing the landscape of needless complexity in an organization. It also provides an approach for identifying opportunities to reduce needless complexity using the needless complexity diagnostic.

A discussion on how file sharing software can assist communications between teachers and students. Explains how Peer‐to‐peer networking can benefit education and improve student feedback.