This is how author and futurist Don Tapscott described his vision when speaking to delegates at the WCIT 2002 about where technology will take us.
"The dot-com boom was not about creating a benefit of IT for customers, it was about creating wealth for venture capitalists," Tapscott said.
He points out that in the post dot-com era IT has returned to being considered only in terms of its direct relevance to business and consumer outcomes.
Tapscott outlined six principles underpining his future vision, describing a global economy based on what he refers to as Hypercapitalism.
He warns that both the destructive and creative potential of technology is governed entirely by the way in which technology is implemented by and for people, rather than the technology itself.
The first step towards Hypercapitalism, according to Tapscott, is based around the base infrastructure which will enable the creation of wealth in the digital age.
"We are looking at a series of devices which combine to create ambient intelligence, where the devices around us interconnect and become smarter in the way they respond to our needs and each other," Tapscott said, using the contents of his own briefcase to demonstrate the extent to which this was already happening.
Tapscott believes that, so far, governments and corporations have approached the Internet in terms of the way business is currently conducted. However, he envisages a third aspect of Hypercapitalism, a demographic revolution which will see a generation of children brought up in a society immersed in technology, ultimately leading to new modes of working with technology.
"Compared to our kids, we have no idea of the capabilities of the technology we are creating," Tapscott observed. He illustrates this by pointing out that using the Internet for many below the age of 23 is akin to watching television a generation ago.
The fourth element of Hypercapitalism Tapscott describes as relationship capital. This is the way in which technology, especially the Internet, is changing the way people within organisations talk to each other.
"The value of a company will be increasingly based on its ability to harness the Internet for the creation of relationships, and the personalisation of interaction," he said.
"Every piece of information can be checked, every price compared to that of your competitors, and the generation that is growing up with the Internet is comfortable with that process."
According to Tapscott, this level of interaction will in turn lead to a whole new era of transparency. To face this companies will be forced to maintain a heightened awareness of their relationships with the global community, in addition to their customers.
"Nestle and Cadbury can no longer buy cocoa from a market where slave labour is used, because they will be found out, and campaigned against via the Internet," Tapscott claimed. "This is not about being a good company, it is a measure of the way the brand comes to represent the relationships you build throughout the world."
He also touched on the potential dangers of a world where there is an increasing gap between those that have access to technology and those that don't.
"We have to ensure that the promises that technology offers are fulfilled globally," Tapscott said, bringing his ideas full circle. "This is not an imperative created by the technology itself, but the way in which it is implemented by human beings."
