André Hurst: you said it would be a shame if humans disappear, but the sun will die in a billion years. How long can we live?
Huber Reeves: one billion years. I am an optimist.

"We need a world where access to knowledge is a fundamental right and the sharing of knowledge is a fundamental duty". This statement made in 2007 by Ismael Serageldin, an Alexandrian librarian, would certainly find agreement from all participants at this World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium, 2008. But there are fundamental questions which need serious consideration if such a philosophy is to become reality. What is the most efficient way to build such a collective knowledge network? How can the information stored in such a repository be retrieved liberally and efficiently? And finally, why would this be feasible in a profit-driven economy? These were three important questions which were addressed by the three speakers during the scientific session "Collective network knowledge and human individual intelligence".

The near future will herald profound changes in the way that information is linked, organized and utilized. We have evidence that the "currency" and funding of the future of collective intelligence is already changing significantly. The future World Wide Web--Web Version 3.0--will be determined by what we, as a population of web users, do with this collective information.

The 2008 Symposium will start with an interactive session on the conditions necessary for a fruitful dialogue. Audience participation will be central during the next two days, with plenary sessions taking place in the mornings and discussion workshops in the afternoons. Two main interdisciplinary topics chosen by our international Scientific Board, provide the themes that will guide our debate.

The challenge in this contemporary, postmodern era is to realize and integrate the diverse fields of knowledge by which our lives are hemmed in. We must recognize that the fault-line between philosophies occurs not as an "epistemological division needed to protect high culture," but merely as a "sea of knowledge that is weakly valued," WKD Scientist-in-Residence Edward O. Wilson declared.