My post on wirearchy has an interesting conversation going in the comments. What I’m noticing as well is that the barriers to more flexible and open business models are breaking down all over the place. I’ve met with three local companies this week and have offered some free advice (FWIW). One is focused on HR, another on retail/wholesale products and another on higher-end retail. I’m also building a new community site for AWI using mostly free applications.
In each case there is a wide variety of online tools available for low cost or even free. These include easy websites, ecommerce, Facebook groups, Flickr photo sharing etc. These tools enable people in business to spend more of their time talking to their customers and have these conversations anywhere and anytime. It also means that people can more easily experiment with new business models. This is empowering and it’s fantastic to watch.
What is most interesting is that these changes are happening at the local level, with people who don’t live online. The revolution is speeding up, there’s little doubt.
I think the “don’t live online” is key. All kinds of engineers and techno-geeks were having fun putzing around with computers in their garages — then Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston created VisiCalc.
This was the first spreadsheet for the personal computer, and became the first computer-based tool that made sense to (and achieved results for) folks who didn’t care about computers.
cool …. zoom-zoom !