A great example of what developing countries can bring to the world

A great example of what developing countries can bring to the world is explained in the TED talk by Shahi Tharoor on India’s soft power. This great talk is a great example of how developing countries – India in this instance – could bring a different view and approach to the world.

It is also a great example to meditate on the power of the new cheap long distance interaction in the daily life of people, even in the poorest countries.

The interesting paradox is that Shashi Tharoor was finally dismissed from his political position because he was a bit too transparent in his usage of Twitter. Some institutions still have it hard to face modern realities – and Indian bureaucracy is certainly a great example of institutions that will fight modern technology to death.

Nevertheless the Fourth Revolution will prevail. This is the direction of history. Whether the road will be smooth or bumpy is another story. We all can decide on that.

Take the 20 minutes or so to listen to that enlightening talk. It is worth it. It might change your view of the world.

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Developed countries are joining the collaborative community

I just return from a trip in one of the World’s poorest countries – Laos (181th country on 229 for per capita GDP according to the CIA’s world factbook). A great country to visit!

What is always amazing in all these countries, on all continents, including Africa, is how well connected people are today. The tuk-tuk drivers and the women selling vegetables on the market all have their mobile phones – and chat often. Cybercafes with reasonably high speed internet dot the urban landscape.

More than that – I could book my internal flight tickets or hotels in advance on the web on very good quality websites.

Cheap long distance interactive communication not only empowers those in developed countries that have something to say but could not publish before (‘the power of the long tail’), it also empowers citizens of developing countries to contribute to the debate. To interact with each other. To open to the world. To contribute without being discriminated against, because in the virtual world, people are much more equal.

We should not underestimate the power of this new interaction. Opening to “developing” countries contribution will make us realize how much these countries have to bring to our too westernized vision of the world. The diversity of their views will be an eye opener. This will drastically shift our worldview.

Are we ready to listen to the developing countries’ people voices? Are we ready for the shift?

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Giving is the basis of the new collaborative value creation

Giving always was valuable. It created connections in the real world, and sometimes -rarely- through the post.

The value of giving for free has exploded. Today, more people are giving more value for free than ever before.
giving out to the world
When you post anything on the internet, you give out to the world. The entire world.

I’m sure many people don’t even realize that.

But, why would you implement complex systems to deter people from using what you give out?

Everyday I use contents posted by other people to nourish my thinking.
Everyday I use contents posted by other people to better communicate my ideas to other people.

And, everyday, I give out to the world. On my blog, on the contents of my website, on the links I recommend.

The value of the Collaborative World is based on free giving. What is preventing you from starting, today, right now?

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Giving is the basis of thriving relationships

Giving is the base of relationships. Any relationship.

giving

When you stop giving, the relationship fades.

When you give more, the relationship shines.

Connection is through giving first.

You will always receive more than you give. But you need to give first to establish confidence and the relationship.

So, when do you start giving for free?

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Overcoming our fear

Failure is free today. But fear is still lurking.

Fear to take the first step into the unknown. Fear to be exposed in the spotlight to the judgment of the crowd. Fear to jump in the unknown.

jump into the unknown
overcome your fear

Overcome the fear. Kill the fear. Ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen to me if I do this? If I publish my idea? What will my family, boss, friends, colleagues, think about me?

There is just one risk. That they like it because they discover a new facet of your personality.

Go and do it. Lean into our fear.

FEAR is just False Evidence Appearing Real.

Get out of your shell. Contribute to the world. Start today. The first step is the most difficult. Do it.

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Failure is now a free opportunity. Grab it!

In the Industrial Age, failure was expensive. Any activity involved material stuff, capital and sweat. You could not fail too often or you would become broke.

Today in the Collaborative Age, failure is free. All it costs is some effort and learning.

The Fourth Revolution website cost me 10$ to setup – the cost of securing the domain name. All the rest is free including the hosting. It will remain so until I decide that this initiative is worthwhile, well received, and it is worth investing a bit more money in improving the service for its followers.
If the initiative does not work, then I’ll shut it down and the only thing it will have cost me is my time. And actually I will have learned so much from the experiment that that’s more an investment than a cost.

20 years ago, to pass my message across, I would have had to write a book or newspaper article, try to find a kind publisher who would have looked at my background and decided whether he would take the risk.

So, failure is not only free today, but it is an opportunity. We can go quickly through failure cycles, learning in the process until we find the right product, idea, message.

We still don’t embrace systematically free failure because of our Industrial Age mindset. And because of our fear.

We often read about improving a little bit every day so that the compound improvement gets significant.

When will you decide to fail once a day so that the compound investment and opportunity becomes significant?

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How can we hope to understand the Collaborative Age?

We have been raised in the Industrial Age. Our parents lived in the core of the Industrial Age. Our mindset and world-view has been shaped by years and decades of Industrial Age formatting.

Revolutions take often at least one generation to spread, because it involves a drastic mindset change.

Embedded in our Industrial Age conditioning, how can we hope to get a glimpse, understand, the Collaborative world?

Only two approaches are possible.

  • Analyze previous Revolutions to understand typical constants and transformations, and extrapolate to the Fourth Revolution
  • Examine Fourth Revolution precursors and follow their direction towards the Collaborative Age.

The way to understanding the Collaborative Age is hard and dangerous. But it is necessary. Only by anticipating transformations can we thrive through them and find a meaning to the world.

Are you ready to go down the arduous path of trying to understand the Fourth Revolution?

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A short history of human civilization

Human civilization is gone through 3 Revolutions since 100,000 years.

How do we know that there are only 3 Revolutions, and that these Revolutions have really changed the world? That’s easy. Just look at the world population estimates over time.

human population over time
That cannot be more clear. Each Revolution brought a significant change in the value production system. Many more humans could be sustained. Overall population increased by more than 100 times as each Revolution spread over the planet.

Our physical environment got modified by each Revolution: agricultural farmland, industrial and transportation facilities…

The new value production system of the Fourth Revolution will dwarf the Industrial Age production system. It will change our living environment and the world. Are you ready for the transformation?

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The organization’s social network needs to become open to the outside

The Collaborative Age organization will be open to the outside (see a previous blog post: the organization needs to open itself).

Likewise their social network systems need to open to the outside. That’s even less straightforward.

I was just reading Tony Hsieh’s book on Zappos (‘delivering happiness’) and what struck me is how they leveraged a spirit of collaboration with the outside world through their systems to become successful. Indeed they work with their suppliers in a spirit of collaboration and give them access to sales data which would have been the graal of confidential information in Industrial Age organizations. And it works to leverage the commitment and support of the external world. It becomes aligned with the purpose of the organization.

Likewise a great parameter of Amazon’s renewed success is the openness of their website to the comments of readers and authors.

open close button

By opening its systems to the world the organization leverages on the world’s creativity, and avoids creating internal duplicates which are much less deep and responsive.

We don’t know what’s the recipe for opening the right way, at the right time. But experiments like Zappos seems to show that openness should not be feared, as long as the spirit of collaboration is there.

So, when do you open your internal social network to the world?

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For the first time the elite will be nomadic

The elite of the Agricultural and Industrial Ages were sedentary.

The nomad was the enemy. Appearing suddenly from the steppes, the barbarian thirsty for blood, gold, and the amenities of civilization.

Civilization, wealth, value was sedentary.

The K.E.E.N., dominating the Collaborative Age value production system, will move through the world from project to project. He or she will be rootless. The elite will be international.

Today for the first time ever, the dominant elite will be nomadic. The sedentary will not dominate value production.

Are we ready for the change?

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Broadcasting power defined the institution of the Industrial Age

So many institutions of the Industrial Age were defined by their broadcasting power.

They were defined by their specialized journal, their TV channel, their radio station.

Broadcasting was expensive and complicated. It took institutions to do that.

Institutions decided what could be broadcast and what could not be. Institutions decided what was mainstream and what was not. Institutions decided what was good and what was not.

Today, unprecedented long distance interconnectivity bypasses the monopoly of institutions to broadcast information.

Anybody can, for no cost, broadcast to the world.

When will institutions realize that superior broadcasting power is not any more the justification of their existence?

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