Emergence and Being Digital

I thought it worthwhile repeating a comment I posted on the FastForward blog in response to Jim McGee's post on emergence and Enterprise 2.0 - his post is too long to quote but I said:

"I think part of the problem is the view that emergence is just a fancy word for "messiness". Try throwing around a few copies of Emergence by Steven Johnson. However, you're right that "Failure in the market is tolerated in ways that don’t translate well inside organizations" but even before Web 2.0 it was possible to build systems that allow for failure (or waste) - after all its all just bits and bytes (think Negroponte)."

The reference to Negroponte is a pointer to Nicholas Negroponte and his now famous book, Being Digital.

Technorati tags: Jim McGee, Enteprise 2.0, Emergence, Steve Johnson, Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital