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Defining work in the digital age: an analysis by GigaOM Pro

Summary:

The future of work is already here. It is just already distributed, one might say. The freelance economy, microtasking, mobile workers, coworking spaces, crowdsourcing: All of these point to how work is increasingly shifting from the twentieth-century model of Taylorism (think scientific management applied to labor processes such as assembly-line production and fixed workplaces) to a more flexible, hyperspecialized and connected workforce. This report examines the new world of work, from the devices and software services we use to the growing role of social media, the importance of a group-centric mentality and how the roles of employees, managers and organizations are evolving.

  1. Table of contents
  2. The new workforce: where social, data and hyperspecialization meet – by Jody Ranck, DrPH
    1. Past and present
    2. The pull of the future
    3. From firm to platform
    4. It’s the network, stupid
    5. Data, the new currency and organizational intelligence
    6. Data and technologies in the future of work
    7. The role of knowledge
  3. The role of organizations, employees and managers in the new workplace – by Larry Hawes
    1. The role of organizations
    2. The role of individual workers
    3. The role of managers
    4. Acclimating to the new world of work
    5. Selected bibliography
  4. Consumer design in the enterprise – by Thomas Vander Wal
    1. Shifts in devices
    2. Shifts in apps and services
    3. Putting work and collaboration into the hands of users
    4. Coming around to the consumer-design focus
    5. Tips for IT departments
  5. Work media and social cognition – by Stowe Boyd
    1. Human beings are more social than you think
    2. Sharing status makes us happy
    3. Streaming increases learning
    4. Increasing social density increases innovation
    5. A new state of mind and culture
    6. Working out loud
  6. Beyond social: the crowd-based enterprise – by David Coleman
    1. The value of social
    2. Communities, crowds and social networks
    3. The characteristics of a crowd
      1. Symmetry
      2. Engagement
      3. Purpose
      4. Process and direction
      5. Unconscious and conscious crowds
      6. Heterogeneousness
      7. Opportunistic behavior
    4. Critical mass, or tipping point
    5. The future of work
    6. New business models
    7. Appendix A: redefining Metcalfe’s law
  7. About the authors
    1. About Stowe Boyd
    2. About David Coleman
    3. About Larry Hawes
    4. About Jody Ranck
    5. About Thomas Vander Wal
  8. About GigaOM Pro

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