Macro Principles - Wednesday, June 17, 2009 0:28 - Comments

The cost of interactions between individuals has fallen to zero

This will be a short and to the point post. I have sought to explain how this blog is (kind of) organized (see here). In the process, I have changed a bit the organization, and have now to comply with it :) So let me do a few posts that need to be there while not really bringing new content, for the majority that is.

One of the fundamental shifts brought by the emergence of the Internet as a common tool used by individuals is that the costs of interaction has fallen to zero. Umair Haque is one of the best references in this domain, and characterizes this new context as a world of “cheap, ubiquitous interactions”, or said otherwise a “hyperconnected” world.

At first through virtual rudimentary Bulletin-Boards, the Internet has enabled increasingly efficient, cheap and deep interactions. What started through mailing-lists or on ICQ, continued on forums, and evolved into tools like Facebook, Dopplr, and an infinite variety of means for individuals to find, connect, and interact with other individuals on nearly every possible topics or collective endeavors.

Of course, such a radical shift had many consequences. They range from radical transparency to the decay of brands. You may think that this shift has occurred a long-time ago and has now being incorporated in every domain: strategy, marketing, etc. You would be right for the first point, but unfortunately quite wrong on the second. We’ll delve into this in subsequent posts.

An obvious illustration would be how industrial-era organizations are seizing on these existing technological capabilities to improve their internal efficiency. Most aren’t, and the unrealized potential is simply mind-blowing. What is needed is a complete rethinking of organizations as institutions, with all dimensions redefined to take into account these shifts.

Umair has been banging on all of this brilliantly for several years now, if you are interested in this topic (and I would argue that you should), he’s now blogging at Harvard Business Publishing.