A vision come true

In 1989 we started the Sun Microsystems Ibérica project with a message that sounded like a distant prophecy: “The network is the computer“, we said. Spain had just entered the Common Market. Telefónica was overwhelmed and took up to 6 months to install a line. In such a precarious situation, the important thing to set up the office was not the place, but the connection. So we chose an apartment on Paseo de la Habana (Madrid) simply because it had two telephone lines. We had to place the e-mail server in the kitchen, instead of the refrigerator, because it was the only place with sufficient electrical power. On my business card there was already an e-mail address, something practically unprecedented. In that scenario, presenting as a motto “The Net is the computer” was the closest thing to going out on the street to preach wrapped in an orange robe, just as the Hare Krishna did…

And yet, Sun’s vision is a reality today. I think very few at this point question that we are living in unique moments in the history of humanity. In the words of Peter Senge:

“Perhaps for the first time in history, humanity has been able to create far more information than it can absorb, foster more interdependence than anyone can manage, and accelerate change at a pace we can hardly keep up with.”

It is a quote from his book The Fifth Discipline that illustrates very well the 3 disruptive keys that have changed our world, and that today define the new Era of Collaboration: the knowledge society, mass collaboration and the accelerated pace of change.

The essence of this new Era is mass collaboration. The constant interaction of users through a technological platform that is already available – Web 2.0 – has allowed us to reach a level of knowledge unimaginable in the entire history of Humanity. And this is just the beginning. The advance of the Age of Collaboration is already unstoppable, propelled by the Emergence of a new talent, that of digital natives, for the creation of New social structures that surpass all the previous ones in complexity, and therefore New Value Creation Models based on open collaboration between global communities. I believe that, above all, we must face the changes generated by the new paradigm with a great deal of humility. It is enough to read the press every day to realize the growing difficulty that our institutions face in an increasingly global and complex world; to understand that governments are struggling to update our rules of coexistence and adapt them to new social structures that they can hardly follow. We also observe how our schools and universities struggle to maintain the relevance of their textbooks and their content in the face of the arrival of this new generation of digital natives, who live connected to the new world at digital speed, and who are capable of processing in a single day more information than their parents – turned digital immigrants – have seen in their entire lives. This new global and transparent environment may worry many of our managers, and may be threatening to some of our politicians. But you will soon notice, from my comments and from my analysis, that I am optimistic about changes. I believe that, in the same way that transparency in the markets has generated more efficient markets,

Transparency in organizations and institutions will lead us to more efficient societies and fairer and more sustainable development models.

” Transparency in markets generates more efficient markets; transparency in organizations creates more efficient societies and fairer and more sustainable development models”

A space to reflect and comment

With this blog I would like to open a space for conversation in the Spanish blogosphere about the impact of the Age of Collaboration on ourselves as people and on our organizations. We will talk about the need to reinvent ourselves, on a personal level, to learn to interact with the new world. In an environment marked by accelerated change, permanent innovation and the globalization of markets, we will also talk about the need to create transparent organizations, as agile as change itself, and where innovation and leadership are everyone’s job. Organizations designed for people, capable of attracting the best creative talent and deserving of the passion and creativity of their employees. I would like this blog to be a real conversation and that, together, we would be able to answer many of the questions that this new era poses to us. You are invited to participate with your comments in this exciting journey.