In this one-day session, the Leading Edge Forum and prominent outside CIOs, academics, and business leaders will assess the changing nature of work and the new cultural and social contracts that will be needed to realize the full potential of the information technology revolution.

Download agenda

View video clip of Thomas Malone speaking at 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos

Throughout its history, information technology has been on a journey, becoming ever-more integrated with business and society.  Consider that employees are no longer just users; they are increasingly ‘double-deep’ skilled in both their particular job functions as well as the relevant IT know-how.  Customers are also no longer just consumers.  They rely on the web and their own social networks to help themselves and others make better, more informed decisions.  Finally, in many organizations, IT has become inseparable from business decision-making, corporate culture, and the larger contract with society.

These shifts in employee empowerment, customer behaviour, management thinking and societal obligations are changing the very nature of work as well as the business practices and social contracts used inside and outside of the firm.  The Internet will continue to create many exciting new opportunities in areas such as social networking, mobility and collective intelligence, but it’s also creating new risks and challenges as traditional command and control environments must learn to co-exist with new management models based on communities, participation, and trust.