Today we are witnessing the early, turbulent days of a revolution as

signifi cant as any other in human history. A new medium of human

communications is emerging, one that may prove to surpass all previous

revolutions – the printing press, the telephone, the television – in its impact

on our economic and social life. Th e computer is expanding from a tool for

information management to a tool for communications. Th e Internet (Net)

and World Wide Web (Web) are enabling a new economy based on the

networking of human intelligence. In this digital economy, individuals and

enterprises create wealth by applying knowledge, networked human intelligence,

and eff ort to manufacturing, agriculture, and services. In the digital

frontier of this economy, the players, dynamics, rules and requirements for

survival and success are all changing.

Such a shift in economic and social relationships has occurred only a

handful of times before on this planet. It is causing every company to think

far beyond the likes of “reengineering” to transform itself. A new enterprise

is emerging – the internetworked business-which is as diff erent from the corporation

of the twentieth century as the latt er was from the feudal craft shop.

Th e Digital Economy att empts to answer the question: What does it all mean

for my business? Whereas businesspeople are inundated with information, ideas,

and theories on new technologies and new organizational forms as well as changing

business conditions and strategies, there has been litt le success in developing

a coherent view that synthesizes these factors. Th e Digital Economy explains the

new economy, the new enterprise, and the new technology, and how they link to

one another—how they enable one another. If you and your organization understand

these relationships—the role of the new technology in creating the new

enterprise for a new economy—you can be successful.