By Rod Collins
“May you live in interesting times,” is an old English expression whose enigmatic meaning can make people wonder whether they’ve been offered a blessing or a curse. Regardless of the apparent well-wisher’s intentions, interesting times are oftentimes a blessing for some and a curse for others. The difference depends upon how capable and how fast people are in recognizing and embracing new ideas and new opportunities.
We, today, are clearly living in interesting times, perhaps the most interesting times in the history of human civilization. We find ourselves in the midst of a technological phenomenon that is far more transformative than previous technology revolutions because it is thoroughly, radically, and rapidly rewriting all the rules for how the world works. This phenomenon, which we have been calling Digital Transformation, is the fundamental architectural shift in the way the world works from top-down hierarchies to peer-to-peer networks.
Digital Transformation is much more than a technology revolution. It is arguably the most consequential socioeconomic revolution in human history because the transcendence of peer-to-peer networks will dramatically transform the basic contours of the human experience. This phenomenon is far bigger than most of us are prepared for because the vast majority of us are lacking in an understanding of the dynamics of networks. We are much more conversant in the mechanics of the hierarchical structures that have shaped the evolution of the human experience since the dawn of civilization. Unfortunately, our knowledge deficiencies in the ways of networks cause us to significantly underestimate the magnitude of the inflection point that is happening in the world around us as most remain blind to what is hidden in plain sight. If our interesting times are to become a blessing, we will need to quickly close our network knowledge gap because Digital Transformation is about to go into overdrive with the coming emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT). Once the IoT becomes the fundamental fabric of our everyday lives, what has been hidden in plain sight will become painfully obvious to those who fail to fill the knowledge gap.
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About the Author: Rod Collins (@collinsrod) is the Innovation Sherpa at Salt Flats and the author of Wiki Management: A Revolutionary New Model for a Rapidly Changing and Collaborative World (AMACOM Books).