Being Meaningful

Done with the opening speech for International Conference on ICT for Transformational at UMS this morning. I didn't read the prepared text which I found a bit too long and academic. Speaking from the heart I briefly touched on the purpose of a university in changing the way people live, work and behave and the rapid progress of ICT over the last 3 decades. I also quoted what the YAB Minister Idris said few days ago about the impactful and meaningful research and knowledge generated in our universities. He questioned about how we can better share it with members of the public. The minister was referring to an article entitled "academicians can change the world if they stop talking only to their peers". The article mentioned about the issue of overwhelming majority of academic research are not shaping today's public debate. Most of the works are largely sitting in academic journals read almost exclusively by their peers (if they do). The number of academic articles published have increased dramatically over the last few years, averaging 1.5 million articles annually. However, 82% articles published in Humanities journals, for example, are not even cited (may not even read). So the question is how we academicians can address the relevant issues, share them with the public and in the context of ICT how can we change or bring better insights into the way people live, work and behave. How can we make academic conferences more lively and meaningful beyond the academic boundary. That is the message to the organiser. Wallahuaklam