ONE COUNTRY, TWO REVOLUTIONS

I was on Wall Street two weeks ago, and I've been in Silicon Valley this past week. What a contrast! During Wall Street is being rattled by a social revolution, Silicon Valley is being by transformed by another innovation revolution-one in other words taking the world from connected to hyperconnected and individuals from empowered to superempowered. It is the biggest leap forward in the IT revolution since the mainframe computer was replaced by desktops and the Web. It is going to change everything about how companies and societies operate.

The latest phase in the IT revolution is being driven

The latest phase in the IT revolution is being driven by the convergence of social media-Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga-with the proliferation of cheap wireless connectivity and Web-enabled smartphones and "the cloud"- those enormous server farms that hold and constantly update thousands of software applications, which are at that time downloaded by users on their smartphones, making them into incredibly powerful devices that can perform myriad tasks.

The emergence of the cloud, explained Alan Cohen, a vice-president of Nicira, a new networking company, "means than anyone can have the computing resources of Google and rent it by the hour". This is speeding up everything-technology, product cycles and competition.

The October issue of Fast Company has an article about the designer Scott Wilson, who thought of grafting the body of an iPod Nano onto colourful wristbands, turning them into watch-like devices that could wake you up and play your music. He had no money, even though, to bring his concept to market, so he turned to Kickstarter, the Web-based funding platform for independent creative projects. He posted his idea on 16 November 2010, reported Fast Company, and "within a month, 13,500 people from 50 countries had ponied up near $1 million". Apple in the near future picked up the product for its stores. Said Alexis Ringwald, 28, who recently founded an education start-up, her second Silicon Valley venture: "I have many friends- they introduce themselves as 'reformed' Wall St bankers and lawyers-who have abandoned conventional careers and are now launching start-ups."