Today an important new book is being released in the United States and Canada. Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, written by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams is the sequel to their best selling work Wikinomics. The Economist says Macrowikinomics is "a Schumpeterian story of creative Destruction." Mark Parker CEO of Nike calls it, "A masterpiece. An iconic and defining book for our time." Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the book, "inspires, pointing the way forward for all of us."
Tapscott, author of 14 widely read books about technology in business and society teamed up with Williams a few years ago and the result -- Wikinomics -- was the best selling management book in the United States in 2007. Macrowikinomics offers nothing less than a game plan for all of us to fix a broken world. Drawing on an entirely new set of original research conducted with countless collaborators the authors explain how the world's most dynamic innovators are using the Internet and new business models to transform industries ranging from manufacturing and transportation to global problem solving. Technology, Health and the Environment are three axes of transformation, each inextricably intertwined. They argue that this is a time of peril as old approaches collapse, but a time of great promise and opportunity as we stand on the threshold of a new age. Now the onus is now on each person to lead the transformation in our workplaces and communities.
The global economic crisis should be a wakeup call to the world. We need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. This is more than a recession or the aftermath of a financial crisis. We are at a turning point in history.
Let's face it. The world is broken and the industrial economy and many of its industries and organizations have finally run out of gas, from newspapers and old models of financial services to our energy grid, transportation systems and institutions for global cooperation and problem solving.
At the same time the contours of a new kind of civilization are becoming clear as millions of connected citizens begin to forge alternative institutions using the Web as a platform for innovation and value creation. From education and science and to new approaches to citizen engagement and democracy, powerful new initiatives are underway, embracing a new set of principles for the 21st century -- collaboration, openness, sharing, interdependence and integrity. Indeed, with the proliferation of social media and social networks, we believe society has at its disposal the most powerful platform ever for bringing together the people, skills and knowledge we need to ensure growth, social development and a just and sustainable world.
Of course, the sparkling possibilities described above contrast sharply with the stagnation and inertia that grips so many contemporary institutions. The harsh reality is that it will take years and probably decades to undo some the damage done by misguided policies and approaches. When the economy crashed in 2008, for example, it cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars. Faced with a historic market meltdown, the worst recession in three generations, plus government guarantees that exceed the cost of every war the U.S. has ever fought, American taxpayers are understandably still furious.
It is pretty much the same story around the world. Many people are reviving calls for updated regulations, more government intervention and even the breakup or nationalization of the big banks. In the meantime, the lingering effects of the financial meltdown threaten to engulf not just companies but entire countries in a sovereign debt crisis. Greece, Spain, and Portugal may have rocked the financial markets, but the U.S. arguably looms largest, with Congress contemplating a budget that by 2020 would nearly double America's national debt, to $22 trillion -- twice the size of the U.S. economy. Clearly we need to rethink the old approaches to governing the global economy. But rebuilding public finances and restoring long-term confidence in the financial services industry will require more than government intervention and new rules; it's becoming clearer that what's needed is a new modus operandi based on new principles like transparency, integrity and collaboration.
Clearly the financial system is not the only institution that's in desperate need of a makeover. A string of recent events suggests that many of the institutions that have served us well for decades -- even centuries -- are frozen and unable to move forward. The failure to reach a meaningful agreement on climate change in Copenhagen has further undermined confidence in the ability of international institutions to provide effective leadership in dealing with a growing list of global challenges. The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provided yet another reminder that the world is grossly under-investing in green energy alternatives that could at last break our perilous addiction to fossil fuels. And despite Obama's historic reforms, the government's own projections suggest that the world's richest nation will still struggle to rein-in the spiraling health care costs that threaten to cripple government budgets in the years to come.
Sure, one could argue that the industrial economy and industrial-age institutions brought us centuries of unprecedented productivity, knowledge accumulation and innovation that resulted in undreamt-of wealth and prosperity. But that prosperity has come at a cost to society and the planet and it is clear that the wealth and security enjoyed in advanced economies may not be sustainable as billions of citizens in emerging markets aspire to join the global middle class. Indeed, as the world's main economic engines continue to sputter, there is growing consensus that we are finally entering a very different kind of economy. Economist Robert Reich asks, "What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can't 'recover' because it can't go back to where it was before the crash."
Is there a way forward? We think so. But don't look to big government or big corporations to supply the answers. The most promising catalysts for reinvention today can be found in a powerful new form of economic and social innovation that is sweeping across all sectors and turning the old models on their head. After all, political leaders may have failed in Copenhagen, but ordinary people everywhere are connecting to create a mass movement that is bringing greater awareness and sense of community to the process of making household and business decisions that can reduce our carbon footprints. Carbonrally.org is a good example. Some 40,000 environmental enthusiasts propose great ideas for saving energy and reducing emissions and the community chooses the best ideas to pursue as a team. Carbonrally tracks the collective impacts and shows the power of many people getting the job done together.
On PatientsLikeMe.com, one of the Web's most vibrant health care communities, some 60,000 members believe that sharing their health care experiences and outcomes is good, and perhaps even integral, to speeding up the pace of research and fixing a broken health care system. Why? Because when patients share real-world data, collaboration on a global scale becomes possible. The health care system becomes more open and this in turn improves outcomes for patients, doctors and drug makers. New treatments can be evaluated and brought to market more quickly. Patients can learn about what's working for other patients like them and, in consultation with their doctors, make adjustments to their own treatment plans. All considered, communities such as PatientsLikeMe are leading the way toward a health care system that is cheaper, safer and better than what we have today.
Even governments are taking baby steps toward using the Web to generate more productive, transparent and equitable public services. Indeed, where most governments build mainframes and buy expensive software, U.S. federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra is encouraging federal agencies to use free Google services and open-source wikis for everything from word processing to performance measurement, to service improvement. He calls it the government cloud, but think "app store for government" -- a place where employees can access a vast ecosystem of secure applications and data sets for doing their jobs.
Put it all together and it becomes increasingly clear that we can rethink and rebuild many industries and sectors of society around the principles of wikinomics. Indeed, we're convinced that the world now has nothing less than an historic choice: reboot the old models, approaches and structures or risk institutional paralysis or even collapse. It's a question of stagnation versus renewal. Atrophy versus renaissance. Peril versus promise. Fortunately, for the first time in history, people everywhere can participate fully in creating a sustainable future. This is not just a theory -- it's happening.
Adapted from MACROWIKINOMICS: REBOOTING BUSINESS AND THE WORLD by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams by arrangement with Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright (c) Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, 2010.
Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dtapscott
So as I understand it: China, recognizing all of the economic risks inherent in relying on a petroleum-based energy strategy, has spent billions to subsidize their clean energy economy.
The U.S., a nation more vulnerable than most to energy risks, complains because China is doing exactly what we should be doing.
Let's just take a look at the year 2010's push for energy independence:
China: Billions to subsidize domestic sources of clean energy; massive investments in clean energy infrastructure.
United States: Business as usual, with the bold addition of crying "unfair" about China's efforts.
In a race between one person who acts decisively, and another person who complains about the person acting decisively, can you guess who will win? Is there any doubt at all?
I've heard a lot of talk about building a green economy in the United States. In China, I've seen a lot of action. Seems like we could do better.
Cont'd
So it's time we stopped bickering amonst ourselves and blaming the government when the criminals are not the members of the government, but those with the obscene fortune to have successfully bought the government from under our noses over the last 60 or so years. SO LET'S HEAR IT: viva la revolution against the Uber-wealthy. Most of them belong in jail and those that don't deserve what Louie xvi and Marie Antoinette got, or what Nicholas II and his family got for abusing the masses of people with their avariciousnessave created a gambling house in which they control and manipulate all the gambling so only they win. They use their money to keep people in power who won't use Democracy as it was intended -- .
A pound of fissile fuel provides as much energy as a million gallons of oil, and that's what powers the US Navy's capital ships. Fissile fuel (Pu-239, U-233) can be produced in a breeder reactor from non-fissile U-238 and Th-232, by neutron capture.
The USA, in the very month of the Chernobyl meltdown, had a prototype reactor in the Integral Fast Reactor project, that demonstrated its immunity to exactly the conditions (deliberately imposed to test the design) that caused the TMI accident and the Chernobyl disaster. Such a reactor can consume ALL of the uranium instead of 0.7%, and its waste product per gigawatt-hour is one hundredth even of what we get from currently operating designs, which is one thousandth of the poisons (not counting CO2) from a coal burner. Solar, geothermal, biomass, and wind farms come nowhere close.
Guess what - we had the solution to global warming and energy independence, and the Clinton administration killed it in 1994 to appease the more ignorant of the "environmentalists".
The old saying that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But again, what you have wrote will matter little if "Blossom" energy proves out. I understand that Google is using it now to power their buildings. I admit that I know very little about it myself, but would love to have someone here enlighten me. Please step forward, anyone with knowledge of this new energy source.
Over to you JoBangles, America is waiting!
==============
Here is my solution. Place 25% asset tax on richest 10% and use proceeds to pay off debt.
In times of overweening complexity, only viable solutions are simple.
Of course, I'd have started with publicly funded financing of elections. Without that, the rest of this is a pipe dream anyway.
Contrast the above with Thomas Browne's assertion that government is too big and important to be left to politicians. How true.
The best initiatives come from the local community, the people themselves. It's the only way they feel part of the process and have ownership of what affects them. Initiatives like Kenya's Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and M-Pesa have revolutionized the society. The latter has decentralized government funding and made resources available to locals in their respective constituencies. The latter on the other hand has changed traditional banking and made it mobile and very accessible.
There is no justification for politicians continuing to operate from "official" residences and offices, with air-conditioning among other facilities, while distancing themselves from the people they serve. How else would a politician ever know what Joe Public goes through? Power to the people.
Who charges you a fortune for health "insurance", and pays lawyers to fight you when they decline your claim? To whom are your favorite TV programs beholden for money? When Archer Daniels Midland makes certain PBS programs "possible", do you worry that it means they can equally be making others impossible?
The government in a democracy exists to protect us from our enemies, and perhaps for other reasons. But are not multi-national corporations just as liable to be our enemies as foreign nations? I am certainly more afraid of the rulers of BP than I am of the people of the Ukraine.
I'm tired of hearing that the elected government is getting too much power, when it takes over a modicum of control over bloated private industries which have manifestly been incompetently led.
Besides, science is best done openly, without trade secrets and patents. The government can do that, and private industry cannot.
It's because of oil that our economy and the ecosystems are under going climate change. Trying to blame BO for all this is over simplification of a broad problem. . This insanity began with the conservatives and King Ronald who demanded that we "get government off the backs of business". Well, we did, and everything else was a domino effect. Try reaching back a little further to when and where the decline began. And it didn't start with Carter, either.
Adam Smith's "invisible hand", like the tooth fairy and old Santa, is invisible because it does not exist. But, it helps inject a sense of the super-natural into their game to keep the great unwashed placated. But, sooner or later, the game is uncovered and revolution begins to right the ship of justice and fairness in the "market place".
The economy should fit the needs of the people, instead of the people having to fit the needs of the economy. At some point in time we will finally discover the real problems in our economy. But, that time has not come yet.
The capability is there, but the political will to overcome entrenched interests is not. The situation will have to get much worse before the people rise up and say, enough is enough. Right now, play to pay governance is still in control of the people's Congress. Until that is eliminated, real change will not be forth coming. Of course, all of the incumbents and candidates claim that, "I'm not a Washington insider". What bunch of crap. Even the wannabes are part of the problem as long as they are dependent on private campaign contributions. The system is thoroughly corrupted, and nothing short of a revolution will chase the money changers out of the temple. You think we're ready for that?
The authors say current problems are because "The world is broken and the industrial economy and many of its industries and organizations have finally run out of gas, from newspapers and old models of financial services to our energy grid, transportation systems and institutions for global cooperation and problem solving." and because of "misguided policies and approaches." They go on to recognize the seriousness of current and future economic problems.
However it is not clear to me their solutions deal with the realities. How will "a new modus operandi based on new principles like transparency, integrity and collaboration" solve food or fiancnaial crisis or problems of resource depletion?
The writer of this comment has a weblog : Economics and other things at http://stickychief.wordpress.com/
Could it be that "we" talked ourselves into the problem as well? Think for a moment about "consumer confidence" , and the role that it plays in economic decisions by those in high places. One day everything is fine, the next we're in deep dodo. Are psychological strings being purposefully pulled in order to achieve a desired result? Hmmm. Something to think about, huh?
Care to tell us how this is to be accomplished? Any sea change will of necessity cause some to suffer greatly. Question is- Who shoul suffer the most?