As mentioned in the article Vision & Action, we always have to look deeper and behind the visible things, in order to see what is really happening. In this article I want to talk about the real change in the world as it’s happening now. Nobody, including myself, is able to understand everything in this rapid development. Fortunately the blogsphere provides a lot of help.

It’s a powerful illustration, that shows the almost unbelievable development in users and websites. But equally important is the growth in user generated content: about 100 million users are contributing to the web in websites, weblogs, photo’s, video’s, podcasts and more! So, where the old web was mostly one way traffic, the next web is a two way road. And this goes in many ways: not only is often the reader also a writer, the customer is more and more also an supplier or a salesagent. So, we very much agree with Dion as he says: ‘The next web is much more about a change in people and society than about technology.’

We have to realize that this change doesn’t effect only the users itself, it effects also all organizations in the world, including governments, governmental and non-governmental organizations! A very interesting paper, called ‘The Next Disruption’ is mentioned in a recent post of John DevaDoss (Microsoft Architecture Strategy Department) and written by his collegue Michael Platt. Some quotes of this paper:

• ‘We are entering a time of rapid change in the IT industry that will cause considerable dislocation and change in the Enterprise, IT suppliers, and the way that people perceive and use technologies. This disruption is similar to the PC and Internet revolutions in terms of scope and effect. (…) It has already spawned new marketplaces, industries, and multibillion dollar companies and had a dramatic effect on all aspects of business.’
• ‘The driving forces behind this disruption are the same ones that have driven the previous disruptions we have seen in the IT space: creativity, communication, and commerce.’
• ‘Those people and organizations that recognize them early will be the ones to benefit most.’
• ‘What is happening at the moment is the findings, businesses, activities, and technologies that have been incubated in the consumer space are rapidly migrating to, and being assimilated by, organizations of all sizes.’
• ‘It is clear that, moving forward, there will be three commerce models: transaction, subscription, and advertising-based.’
• ‘Relationship and Reputation is in many ways the underlying layer for the other elements.’
• ‘The whole of the customer contact, sales, and customer relationship management cycle will be revolutionized by the Web 2.0 tools and techniques. (…) All these areas can be made to be self-funding through the use of advertising-based models in the IT systems. It is certainly possible to think of the new enterprise marketing being a profit center for the organization.’
  
• ‘The Software+Services model will create a huge new range of ways of interacting with customers and consumers for enterprises of all sizes that in turn will provide new marketplaces, business opportunities, and revenue generation for the Enterprise.’

So, there are new horizons ahead both for the individual and for ‘the Enterprise’ (also the small ones). Still there’s one more player we shouldn’t forget: the governments and all related institutions. In the western world governments spend about 50% of the GNP, and that’s a lot of money. Moreover, they dictate a substantial part of the ‘rules of the game’. Sofar governments aren’t that much influenced by Web 2.0. But that is changing too. And fast!

The new Society will be totally different for all players…

Technorati Tags: web 2.0, web history, society, new world, philosophy, practosophy, intelligence, collective intelligence