[ Thanks to Matt for
this link. ]
“What do these things have in common: the TV show American Idol,
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, eBay, and the open-source
Linux operating system? They’re all manifestations of a key trend
of our time: the shift in power away from centralized institutions
and toward the individual—from the center to the edge.“We’re entering what might be called the Bottom-Up Economy. As
the Internet’s influence grows, we’re seeing its intrinsic
egalitarianism and tendency to empower the small start to change
many aspects of modern life. Customers today have more options and
less loyalty. They will migrate to businesses that see them as
participants in a process rather than as just consumers…”