There’s hype and then there’s the Internet. The widespread emergence of the World Wide Web and the idea of a network economy have set new records for excess in overheated marketing campaigns, breathless newspaper and magazine articles, and topsy-turvy financial markets. From his perch as founding editor of Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly has long been one of the new economy’s chief hypesters. In New Rules for the New Economy, Kelly tries to encapsulate the characteristics of this emerging economic order by laying out 10 rules for how the wired world operates. The result is a dizzying, sometimes confusing, but always thought-provoking look at the behavior of networks and their effect on our economic lives. At the root of this network revolution is communication. As Kelly writes:
Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture, of our humanity, of our own individual identity, and of all economic systems. This is why networks are such a big deal. Communication is so close to culture and society itself that the effects of technologizing it are beyond the scale of a mere industrial-sector cycle. Communication, and its ally computers, is a special case in economic history. Not because it happens to be the fashionable leading business sector of our day, but because its cultural, technological, and conceptual impacts reverberate at the root of our lives.
Kelly’s genius lies in synthesizing large amounts of information in unique and interesting ways. His ability to turn a phrase is reflected in the names he gives to his 10 rules, and it makes this book a pleasure to read. Some, for example, are: “Embrace the Swarm: The Power of Decentralization” (Rule 1); “No Harmony, All Flux: Seeking Sustainable Disequilibrium” (Rule 8); and “Let Go at the Top: After Success, Devolution” (Rule 6). A few of his ideas have a kind of Teflon quality that makes them elusive and difficult to evaluate. But that’s OK. Like other prognosticators of the future–Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt come to mind–Kelly’s job is to imagine a new world. Far from hype, New Rules for the New Economy is required reading for anyone pondering business in the not-too-distant future. –Harry C. Edwards
Customer Reviews
too many words too much bulloney:
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either you like this book or you dont
i dont —
it exceeded my BS tolerance level
imho too much of this is a total crock full of words
if this were condensed to a magazine article it might be worth slogging through
i wonder - was this once a magazine article that got put on steroids to pump it up to fill a book?
read it at the library if you must
dont buy it
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Pursue opportunities and new opportunites arise, maximize opportunites for others verses solving problems.:
Networks provide easy and constant communication and thereby speed up experience through the network. Once the network is established, it propagates explosive growth with relatively little added genius. The power of the network is abundance; the more plentiful things become, the more valuable they become; and copies are cheap. The value of the invention, company, or technology increases exponentially, as the number of systems it participates with increases linearly. The more opportunities that are taken, the faster new opportunities arise; technology produces potential opportunities; taking opportunities is more important than solving problems, so pursue opportunities; there will be more gain by producing opportunities than by optimizing existing ones; a network breeds opportunities; and bit by bit the network will overtake every atom we deal with. In a world of ubiquitous connections, where everything is connected, poverty will be the person not connected too the network because they will miss the opportunity to establish commerce relationships of value and trade. Therefore, relationships are more important than technical quality. Seek the best innovations with the high performance and the widest basis.
The world’s best experts on your product or service will not work for your company. These fanatical experts are external and can be thought of as hobby tribes. They are informed, connected, and very smart customers. Companies need user groups, almost as much as users need them. As customers get smarter, the locus of expertise shifts toward affiliates and home-brewed groups. The net trends to dismantle authority and shift its allegiance to peer groups, so the new economy begins with technology and ends with trust. There is no faster way to learn than through feedback by a league of connected customers.
Swarm theory:
The new economy is a global economy favoring intangible things: ideas, information, and relationships and is intensely interlinked. Today, the new information based sector occupies over 15% of the total US economy. In the postindustrial society, communication has become the economy and the cultural, technological, and conceptual impacts reverberate at the roots of our lives. The financial sector has reshaped the economy; the financial sector ownership involves only a small number of people; the financial innovations include: mortgages, insurance, venture funding, stocks, checks, credit cards, and mutual funds; the financial sector has given rise to corporations, market capitalism, the industrial age, and has influenced how all business has been done. Since communication is the economy, the net is the future. The net has accelerated in usage due to the increase in silicon chips and fiber optic data transmission; the net is weaving lives, minds, and artifacts into a global scale network; the result is the swarm of information, reticulating the surface of the planet; the new economy will increasing obey the logic of the networks and understanding the network will be the key to understanding how the economy works. In 1997, there were 6 billion non-computer chips and by 2005 the predicted usage was at 10 billion.
The network represents connectivity. We are connection everything to everything. The network values the dumb power of bits in the swarm; the connectivity and usage of the dumb bits or parts in the swarm yield smart results; and we don’t need advanced Artificial Intelligence to make an intelligent system. The network is a link of distributed, bottom up, data bits; it lets things communicate among themselves and takes a decentralized approach for communication, for example, manufacturing robots scheduling their own work based on incoming requests, as they bid on work dependant on their capability. The swarm aim is superior performance in a turbulent environment. Consider the power of the “Wisdom of the crowds”. In one case sample, 5,000 attendees, at a computer graphics conference were give individual access to a simulator and the task on how too land a plane. The attendee had novice knowledge about how to land the plane. The jet responded to the average decisions of the swarm. The group landed the jet with almost no direction. In another case example, the group was given the task to navigate a submarine and go look for buried treasure. The group could not initiate any movement until leadership from a loud speaker was given to “go right”. The leadership unlocked the paralysis of the swarm and the direction facilitated action.
Technology success is measured on how invisible it becomes to the end user and how effective it becomes to the long term strategy in developing products and services that can’t be ignored. The power of the network increases in value n power 2 where n is the number of members. Therefore, networks need to increase their critical mass of members to become effective. Innovation attracts members. Innovation is more important than price; price is the derivative of innovation; monopolies push up price and decrease quality and create a dangerous singular source of innovation; and the network destroys monopolies through collective innovation, such as, open source.
mini version of Out of Control:
Offers 10 rules for organizations to follow to benefit from the emerging Economy. The book is really just a condensed version of Kelly’s earlier book, Out of Control.
Not revolutionary, BUT…:
I tend to give a book **** stars when it should be read and ***** when it must be read. This book remains a good read even after the dot-com implosion. Perhaps even a better read afterward since the hype and frenzy are long since gone and the work can better live and die on its own.
Kevin Kelly, as founding editor of Wired magazine, has long been one of the new economy’s chief advocates. In New Rules for the New Economy, Kelly tries to encapsulate the characteristics of this emerging economic order by laying out 10 rules for how the wired world operates. It is very well thought out and well written. A superb synthesis of new economy thinking. Right or wrong, it does a phenomenal job of putting forth the premises and substantive arguments that make the new economy such a provocative topic. Kelly manages to do this while maintaining a fluid and natural story telling style. Here is a representative sample excerpt:
“Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture, of our humanity, of our own individual identity, and of all economic systems. This is why networks are such a big deal. Communication is so close to culture and society itself that the effects of technologizing it are beyond the scale of a mere industrial-sector cycle. Communication, and its ally computers, is a special case in economic history. Not because it happens to be the fashionable leading business sector of our day, but because its cultural, technological, and conceptual impacts reverberate at the root of our lives.”
This book both informs and, more importantly, inspires. Its powerful message has no doubt launched careers and changed lives. It will remain an important read for many, many years to come.
Kevin, like all good pioneers, has taken more than his fair share of “arrows in the back”, but don’t be mis-led by the naysayers, this one is the real deal.
