The stock exchange has been a barometer of economy and progress for the last few hundred years. Hidden behind the ups and downs of the stock price are the stories of human progress and failures. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs have used the capitalism model to advance human society. However, capital distribution remains a barrier, the problems of high disparity have resulted in a deep social crisis. We have all agreed to resolve the issue in this century. Perhaps an equal distribution of knowledge may solve the unequal distribution of capital.
Library as institutions has been the venues to go to for knowledge. At the great Alexandria library in 3rd century BC and in Francois Mitterrand’s The National Bibliotheque of the 20th century, the main protagonist was and is the book, in paper and in bits. The program of the library has not changed much from then until now. A linear function of a library acting as a missionary of knowledge may not serve the new millennia well. The old program of a library is relevant for solo readers. But the new world operates in groups. What and where is the new waterhole for knowledge?
We look back to commerce in the New York Stock Exchange which was formed under a tree, to democracy in ancient Greek agora, and to justice in the court hearings performed in Indian durbar. The stock exchange was a new typology and so were the agoras and the durbar. They all served the need of the time. Likewise, we need to rethink our institutions.
A knowledge exchange building is a place for a dialogue, the focus shifts to the seeker, the books and bits are the props. It is a building where books, digital servers, and a town hall co-exist together in a park. Between two knowledge sources is a forum setting that allows learning by sharing and a place to protest, contest, agree.
This is a place to collaborate, to use new resources, build partnerships, charter a new course for progress. Sited in cities left behind by the market economy, these exchange buildings provide free tools to compete and claim their share of the capital. The building is the new venture, the knowledge seekers are its capital.
St Louis is where we seek to build the Knowledge Exchange. City air makes you free as they used to say in medieval Germany, so we ask- can St Louis free itself of its issues of economic disparity, population loss, and crime? We introspect, a Knowledge Exchange may help the coming together of discussions, differences, and communities.
“As they say, “If you build it, they will come”
Knowledge Exchange, an idea proposal for the city of St. Louis was done in collaboration with Anesta Kothari.