Digital Economy - it is not about computers

Digital Economy is not about computers or the Internet, although it’s very name points that way. It is about talent allocation, talent being an intangible asset spread throughout the world and the biggest economic resource that humankind has.

Can you imagine how the economy would look like if every person on Earth were allowed to work where most talented and where she or he liked best to work?  I’ve made this question to economists, Presidents, students, people in general. Never have I received a different answer than “Clearly, it would be a lot better than it is now or would ever be with the actual paradigms”.  The fact is then, that by not discovering, unraveling, developing and allocating all the talent we have at present in the world is an economic waste, the biggest waste ever.

The economic models we have developed so far have more or less been able to allocate efficiently the tangible assets and resources (land, work, capital), but they have failed once and again in allocating the intangible ones (talent, creativity, imagination).  The result is a widespread frustration of innumerable people who were born with talents and never had the opportunity to develop them and apply them where they most like doing. The confluence of both is what Ken Robinson calls “the element”. So, which would the GDP of the World be if every human being was working in his or her “element”?

Many people I have talked with about this matter see it as another Utopia. How can you possibly do that? How can you even measure talent, let alone creativity or imagination? How can you design a social system where every child, from pre kinder on, is guided to discover his or her affinities and talents, so that he or she can get to be in the element? Well, there is where digital economy plays a role.

By introducing a comprehensive digital education it is possible to customize education while cutting education costs. Students learn instead of “being taught”. Teachers are mentors, not lecturers. A flexible curriculum where each student studies mainly those subjects where he or she is most talented and likes best may customize the education. It does not mean that the student will never put his or her feet on a classroom again. It means classrooms are meant to apply what has been learned online, with all students present having talent and affinity for the subject. It will help the teacher/mentor to make a bigger contribution to the discovery and development of each student, in a subject that he or she also likes and is talented for.

By introducing online accreditation of skills and affinities, job offer can find anywhere in the world the necessary talent and affinities that best match for any particular task. Work must be redefined: instead of jobs, it will deal with tasks. People don’t need necessarily to be employed 100% of their time in one job. They may attend many employers worldwide. Tasks being performed can be evaluated, and each one can develop a “digital curricula”. Just as the market evaluates contents in the Internet.  Or sellers in e-Bay. Or tasks in Online job portals. It already exists, and it is working fine.

A talent-based economy would mean more opportunities to all, better jobs and better income. It would mean to the World a bigger GDP, a greater sense of justice and fair trade, a drastic reduction on social unrest.

Making talent the main resource of the economy would also mean better relationship between boss and employer, since talent is in people, and it produces more when well motivated. It would be in the best interest of the employer that the employee felt a fair deal with the talent that was put in his behalf. Making talent be the main resource would also mean better relation between nations, since talent is better served when working networked in a multicultural environment.

That is the potential of the digital economy, since all the above can be done only with digital platforms. Digital economy is as much for Knowledge Society as the factory was for the Industrial Society. Talent in its core is intangible, and the place where intangible value runs today is in digital platforms.

A World where all people works where most talented is not impossible any longer. It may be hard to get there, but by all means it is worth trying. Bigger wealth, happier society, social peace is the booty, one that all humankind deserves. We have been gifted with enough talent as to make this world a place where all can dwell and make a decent living. It is no utopia. It is possible.

Alfredo Barriga