The Digital Economy ANNIVERSARY EDITION: Rethinking Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence

By Don Tapscott

With a new foreword by Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive of Google

“Twenty years of hindsight prove how deeply Tapscott understood the impact the Internet would have on the way we live, work, play and learn. This important book, now updated, is just as relevant today as it was then.”
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco

It was the fall of 1994 when Don Tapscott released The Digital Economy – arguably the first best-selling book about the Internet. An instant classic, Tapscott took readers to the epicenter of the transformation, revealing the then-new convergence of the computing, telecommunications, entertainment, and information industries. From Wal-Mart's electronically linked purchasing systems, to Chrysler's paperless car designs, to Levi-Strauss' computerized, custom-designed clothing and beyond, the author explains how leading-edge organizations are riding the new IT wave to acquire information, service consumers, work with suppliers, and manage the evolution of technology within their own enterprises.

But just how accurate was The Digital Economy?

When Tapscott was writing the original edition in 1994, he was living in a world where Netscape had been just introduced as a go-to browser, websites didn’t do transactions, dial-up was the only way to get online, and mobile phones sightings were rare. Google, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, Twitter? They didn’t exist. Now, 20 years after the original publication, Tapscott goes back to his original analyses to discuss what he got right and what he got wrong -- putting this seminal work in an historical context.

The anniversary edition features new essays by Tapscott at the end of each chapter, reflecting on and updating his original thinking. Included in this sweeping new analysis of how the Internet has changed business and society in the last 20 years, are overviews of:

Preserving all the original text as it appeared 20 years ago, this new edition includes highly informed reflections on his predictions, along with new forecasts of where the digital world is headed.

About the Author:

Don Tapscott is one of the world's leading authorities on innovation, media, and the economic and social impact of technology and advises business and government leaders around the world. In 2011 Don was named one of the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50. He has authored or co-authored 14 widely read books including the 1992 best seller Paradigm Shift. His 1995 hit The Digital Economy changed thinking around the world about the transformational nature of the Internet and two years later he defined the Net Generation and the "digital divide" in Growing Up Digital. His 2000 work, Digital Capital, introduced seminal ideas like "the business web" and was described by BusinessWeek as "pure enlightenment." Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything was the bestselling management book in 2007 and translated into over 25 languages.

The Economist called his book Macrowikinomics: New Solutions for a Connected Planet a "Schumpeter-ian story of creative destruction" and the Huffington Post said the book is "nothing less than a game plan to fix a broken world."

Over 30 years he has introduced many ground-breaking concepts that are part of contemporary understanding. His work continues as a the Chairman of Moxie Insight, a member of World Economic Forum, Chancellor of Trent University, Adjunct Professor of Management for the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Martin Prosperity Institute Fellow.