“The 21st Century may usher in the “e-lance economy,” where
independent contractors belong to teams of electronically connected
professionals, connected in a fluid, temporary network to produce
and sell goods and services. Once a job is done – in a day, a
month, a year – the network dissolves and the contractors seek out
the next assignment….”
“The virtual organization is one example of how, as
employees become individual contributors, technology can enable new
kinds of organizations. The researchers point to the Linux
operating system, where programmers worldwide created, tested and
modified the system as they saw fit. With no managers, and
connected primarily through the Internet, this loose federation
turned Linux into the most favored version of Unix.“