NEW YORK: We hear much about the "new economy", based on networking and globalization. Is this "new economy" really new, or just the same old thing with a few new wrinkles?
The world has fundamentally changed. The first thing that changed - and is still changing - is the velocity of change itself.
It took 40 years for radio to get 50 million listeners in America. It took 13 years for television to gain a like number. It took 4 years for the World Wide Web to get 50 million domestic users, and its use is growing 1000% a year. The rule that the speed and number of transistors double every 18 months is now more than matched by the expectation that total bandwidth of the world’s communication systems will triple every 12 months. As bandwidth grows the cost of information transmission will move toward zero.
NEW YORK: We hear much about the "new economy", based on networking and globalization. Is this "new economy" really new, or just the same old thing with a few new wrinkles?
The world has fundamentally changed. The first thing that changed - and is still changing - is the velocity of change itself.
It took 40 years for radio to get 50 million listeners in America. It took 13 years for television to gain a like number. It took 4 years for the World Wide Web to get 50 million domestic users, and its use is growing 1000% a year. The rule that the speed and number of transistors double every 18 months is now more than matched by the expectation that total bandwidth of the world’s communication systems will triple every 12 months. As bandwidth grows the cost of information transmission will move toward zero.