Commodities of the New Economy
Abstract
Inflection points that have altered the fabric of life and, often,
the very essence of being have accented history. Some of the most
significant have involved the creation and dispersion of information.
When the Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, the first form of
information leverage was born. At some point during the Middle Ages,
a chanting monk figured out he didn't need to move his lips to read.
In the 14th century, Gutenberg brought moveable type to Europe,
increasing the level of information dispersion dramatically. Visual
telegraphy, followed by the electric telegraph drove information
transmission rates to the speed of light. The impact on life and
commerce of each of these was significant as each inflection
introduced a new set of commodities and technologies that became
ingrained in life. The Sumerians' cuneiform begat a market for clay
that was used to manufacture tablets; Gutenberg's printing press
cemented the role of paper as a commodity of the then new age.
Telegraphy made electricity, wire, and even cable sheathing
indispensable commodities.
At the end of the 20th century, computing and communication have
converged to create an existence-altering inflection point in which
what information you have access to and how fast you can get it
become the cornerstones of commerce. Imbuing companies and
organizations with the manifestation of this convergence - the
Internet - has yielded a new set of commodities that represent
the most basic elements of communications and computing and are
the basis of the new economy. While the Internet is the
infrastructure that facilitates the new economy, there is also a
new set of commodities upon which the Internet rides. These are
power, information storage, computer processing power, and
bandwidth. When these commodities are adequately present, a
virtualization of organizations that includes distribution of
people and resources becomes possible. Physical presence becomes
secondary while access to the information, the currency of the new
economy, becomes paramount. Without any one of these commodities,
the historical inflection represented by the Internet would not be
occurring.
For any business currently operating in this environment, the
challenge becomes figuring out how to apply these commodities in
unique ways and to recreate the world in to its advantage, as
opposed to responding to the world created by its competitors.
Part 2 - Hierarchy of Cyberneeds
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