Each of these on its own is interesting but not the central idea; each on its own is only an example of how value is created with others, allowing seemingly disparate individuals to create value in a way that once only centralized organizations could.

In 2005, some 30 percent of the US workforce participated in the freelance economy, and some measures suggest it could be as high as 50 percent in 2012, accelerated, in part, by the recession. Some would argue—myself among them—that this number would be larger if portable health care existed.

An organization can—and should be—perpetually reinventing its constructs.

When community invests in an idea, it also co-owns its success. Instead of trying to achieve scale by all by yourself, we have a new way to have scale: scale can be in, with, and through community.

inwhat ways can we structure things entirely differently to create more value in the context of our times, to be fast to market, to be fluid in mind-set, to be flexible in how we organize, deliver, and create value?

Onlyness is fundamentally about honoring each person: first as we view ourselves and second as we are valued.

Power has shifted from a company-centered worldview where it was responsible for figuring out what to create and telling the consumer (loudly and often if it had money to do so) what to buy, to a time when consumers can co-create with one another and with brands.

The Social Era constructs we’ve been describing say it doesn’t have to be about one or the other; we can “allow people to contribute their best” and “create scale” at the same time,

Openness can be seen in the world today on societal, organizational, and personal levels. We recently saw this on the world stage during the Arab Spring. We see it in organizations when global brands like TED decide to open up with TEDx. And at the individual level, we see it in social networks and blogging.