A Changing World – An Introduction into the Pinhole Economy

For the first time in human history, the problem with information is not that we don’t have enough of it, but that we have too much of it.

The statistics on how much information we are exposed to each day varies, but by any measure, it is a flood of epic proportions. Figuratively speaking, we have been drinking data through a firehose. And when we first discovered we could, it was exhilarating. Just look at the trend charts on website usage, or cable channel growth, or pharmaceutical growth – the more information we could deploy, the more we did deploy.

Until recently. As the amount of information to be processed has increased exponentially, the ability of our minds to process it has remained constant, and an interesting phenomenon has occurred. There have been an increasing number of signs that we are tired of drinking through the firehose. That we are ready to be more selective. Suddenly, website visits are down, but apps – a more selectively focused interface – are exploding. Email use is down but peer-to-peer communications such as chat or social media are up. We are embracing filtering technology where once we chafed against it. We are embracing it because it puts us in control.

So now, we are starting to consume our data through a pinhole. That we create.

Think about how you came to read this. These words did not find you. You found them.

This points to a fundamental shift in the economy. All around us, new business models are being created by making massive amounts of data, options and choices more manageable, more personalized and more customized. It’s the dawn of the Pinhole Economy. And it crosses every category and business segment.

In this series, we will look at the pinhole companies and categories that are fundamentally changing the economy, from Google (“Google!? The Big Brother of the world!? A pinhole!?” you might say, and we would say “absolutely.”) to nanotechnology to entertainment. We’ll look at the tools required to shape a successful pinhole venture. And we’ll look at some cautionary tales of categories that are failing to manage the pinhole successfully. We’ll comb the entire landscape of the world economy. And finally, we’ll close with a look ahead, at what the Pinhole Economy might hold in the future.

And in true pinhole fashion, we’ll distill it all down to just the information that you want.

Part 2: The Roots and Causes of The Pinhole Economy

Part 3: Recognizing, and Activating, a Pinhole

Flickr photo courtesy of clarkmaxwell