Knowledgeable societies need new kinds of institutions that will connect disparate fields of knowledge and translate them to each other. The Homeric oral tradition of poetry illustrates the true nature of the Web as well as computer scientists’ network graphs. The scholarship of humanities and the sciences, often viewed as dissimilar, is only one example of connections that were broken centuries ago when the sciences developed, specialized, and became disseminated by the scholarly publishing system, formed in their disunited image. The discipline-based structure of funding organizations, libraries and universities further reinforced the divided nature of knowledge.

We can restore the connections by building translational and connective institutions of a new kind, based on the deep understanding, and the possibilities, of the digital environment. In medicine, for example, there is a translational bridge between the lab and clinical practice — we need similar bridges between clusters of disciplines (such as social sciences, sciences, humanities), but we do not have any organizations whose mission it is to do just that.

We need to build organizations of a new kind that will exist as autonomous units cutting across research departments and support organizations, such as funding and development, research administration, IT and libraries. And we need to invent and promote new forms of scholarly publications that speak both to scientists and humanists.

We have to continue exploring how digital modes of discovery and communications can lead to creating better connections, or “conduits,” between the varied disciplines and fields. Information visualization, network approaches, design, or interactivity are only a few examples such connections. Similarly, qualitative and quantitative methods of discovery, experiments and interpretations, can aid each other in making sense of information and data.

Knowledgeable societies need arts and humanities just as much as they need interdisciplinary institutes on climate change and global health. All forms of knowledge, including practical expertise, can fuel each other’s growth and — when made understandable to each other — will create faster solutions to problems traditionally solved within the methodological apparatus of one discipline or a field.