The Impact of New Information and Communication Technologies on the Creation and Dissemination of Knowledge Inheritance

If in the beginning the New Information and Communication Technologies were considered important factors for economic growth, nowadays they are synonymous with sustainable development. Their impact on society is on its way to reformulate the equation of national productivity enabling significant improvements in the efficiency the matter and energy are being used with. Their added value resides mainly in the manipulation and diffusion (in many cases free on Internet) of ideas and not of matter or energy. The access to global innovation networks is unfortunately unequal in the various regions of the world. While some regions are considered real knowledge hubs which can connect anytime to the global knowledge flows, there are areas where these remain sporadic. A careful attention should be paid to the sharing of knowledge within virtual communities due to the unprecedented evolution of the Internet and its impact on the information systems. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.