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Unit 92

The Networked Economy Explosion

What we're witnessing today in the realm of cyberspace -- the online reformulation of everything from the way we play and learn to how we shop and trade stocks -- may represent no less a world-transforming change than the spectacular burst of creation in the era of Cambrian Explosion so long ago.

new Rules for the New Economy by Kevin Kelly is a guidebook that informs us about what to expect and how to deal with the fabulous things to come. The key premise of this book is that the principles governing th world of soft -- the world of intangibles, of media, of software, and of services -- will soon command the world of the hard -- the world of reality, of atoms, of objects, of steel and oil, and the hard work done by the sweat of brows.

The book appeals to geeks and also turns on mainstream readers who are a little more than curious about where the digitally rendered world is headed. Where it's likely headed, in Kelly's words, is "upside down". Chew on the idea that "the surest way to smartness is through massive dumbness". What that means in essence is that tiny computer chips, though relatively dumb on their own, can be added to billions of mundane objects and, thereby, yield substantial economic benefits.

In the conventional world of supply and demand where we all grow up, value came from scarcity. As in diamonds, gold and oils. In a world of digital imperatives, power comes from abundance. That was a principle Apple tragically failed to understand when it backed off from licensing its graphic compute interface, assuring that its market share would be savaged by Microsoft's more open Windows operating system.

That leads us to another of Kelly's laws: follow the free. As the law of plentitude kicks in, savvy companies such as Netscape distribute its Web browser for free in order to sell auxiliary services or products. Similarly, expensive cell phones are offered as freebies to gain contracts for phone services.

Kelly finally tells us to look around and see how much the world has changed under our own feet. An American farmer today may still get some dirt under his fingernails, but much of his labor is performed under the umbrella of the electronic network. His tractor has a wireless phone and a satellite-linked GPS location device; his home computer is connected to a never-ending stream of weather data, grain market reports and moisture detectors in the soil.