Author:
Gerry McGovern
Publisher:
Blackhall Publishing
Publication Date:
June 1999

 

If businesses want long-term success in the digital age, they need to care about people, and about the issues that are important to people. The Internet is a revolution in communications, not in technology.

The Caring Economy is not a book about the Internet or computers. Nor is it about bandwidth, faster processors, information technology, ecommerce, digital television, video-on-demand or nerds and hackers. It is not about cost savings and downsizing and automating people out of the picture. It will explore and cover all these technologies and issues, but it is not about them.

It is rather a book about people—both business people and consumers—and how we all interact with each other, in life and on the Internet. It explores the relationships between people and the tools they make and use. It is about how people are impacted by and impact on new technologies and issues.

It seeks to establish some philosophical foundations and basic principles for living in the digital age. It is a book about how we all need new attitudes, new rules and new business principles for success in a digital age economy and society.

The book is written from the standpoint that community and commerce are inherently intertwined—you cannot have one without the other. It goes deeply into the function, meaning and potential of communities. It explores the whole meaning of what a ‘network’ is, what ‘networking’ is about, and how best to live and work ethically and effectively within a networked environment.

The Caring Economy is about attempting to give people a route-map for a journey to a new age. It says to the business person: “Do not be scared. Do not overreact.” Things are not going to be all that different. The digital age will be more than anything else about people communicating, interacting and trading with each other.