The technological revolution has propelled us into an open world with powerful tools available to empower us. Futurist Don Tapscott, speaking at a TEDGlobal event explores how recent generations have been “bathed in connecting technology from birth”. He believes that this has resulted in a world that is transforming into a far more open and transparent place.
Yesterday’s internet was a platform for the presentation of content. The internet of today is a platform for computation. The internet is becoming a giant global computer, and every time you go on it, you upload a video, you do a Google search, you remix something, you’re programming this big global computer that we all share. Humanity is building a machine, and this enables us to collaborate in new ways. Collaboration can occur on an astronomical basis.
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Tapscott talks about the incredible power of social media in the open world, citing the Arab Spring as a particularly pertinent example: “social media didn’t create the revolution; it was created by a new generation of young people who wanted jobs and hope.”
According to the renowned futurist, the internet has dropped the cost of “rebellion” and “dissent” by empowering this new generation with new tools:
“You think that social media is about hooking up online? For these kids [in the Tunisian Revolution], it was a military tool to defend unarmed people from murderers,” says Tapscott.
To me, this is not an information age, it’s an age of networked intelligence. It’s an age of vast promise, an age of collaboration, where the boundaries of our organizations are changing, of transparency, where sunlight is disinfecting civilization, an age of sharing and understanding the new power of the commons, and it’s an age of empowerment and of freedom.
