Ten years ago Professor Mawdudur Rahman got to thinking about how researchers and professionals share information, and he decided it didn’t always make sense. For example, if Rahman, a professor of accounting in the Sawyer School of Business, wanted to publish a paper, he’d do so in an academic journal that was distributed to his peers. And that was the problem. “My colleagues outside of accounting never had any idea of what I do, and how it could be useful to them in their particular disciplines.” This issue is especially problematic when if comes to sharing information to bridge the knowledge gap between developing and developed countries.

To solve this problem, Rahman founded the Knowledge Globalization Institute in 2007 and last year, the Institute decided to host an international conference aimed at bringing together researchers and professionals from all disciplines to share their expertise with others. Supported by a committee of Suffolk faculty and administrators, Professor Rahman and Nargis Mahmud, executive vice president of the institute, hoped that conference attendees would come from all backgrounds. They were right.

Presenters came from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Singapore, Poland, the UK, and Kenya. They presented papers on distance education, small companies in global competition, ethics and social responsibility in the insurance industry, debt relief, information technology, and entrepreneurship. Even a couple of Suffolk undergrads, Annika Khan and Rodions Podgorbunskih, had knowledge to share as they presented their paper, “Second Life: A Global Market for a New Generation.” The idea behind the conference, and the Institute itself, according to Myra Lerman, assistant dean of undergraduate programs and co-chair of the Conference, is “to get people thinking about sharing knowledge for economic and social advancement.” In short, she says, “to make the world a better place.”

The Knowledge Globalization Institute will hold another conference on April 17– 19. This year's there is “Knowledge Globalization: Knowing, Sharing, and Changing,” and will follow four conference tracks that reflect the world as it is today: Global Health Issues and Global Education, Spirituality and Personal Moral Compass in the Global Business, Crises and Opportunities in the Global Economy, Global Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. For more information about the upcoming conference visit: http://www.kglobal.org/.