The Mesh
I was surprised when I found a package at my door-step. I was especially surprised when I opened it up and found a nice little letter from Seth with a fresh and shiny book, The Mesh: Why The Future Of Business Is Sharing by Lisa Gansky.
So I’ve been reading, and the first thing to know is that Lisa is incredible. Gansky was the co-founder of GNN the first commercial website and portal (in the 1990’s portals we’re the ‘way of the future’, then, Google came.) she sold it to Aol in 1995. Then, she co-founded another disruptive company, Ofoto an online photo company that was acquired by Kodak in 2001.
That alone, is impressive.
But to the book! - The Mesh is a simple book about a big idea. Like never before, the world is connected with open or shared networks. Not only are we sharing more information about ourselves on facebook, we’re also starting to share our resources like cars, bikes, clothes, tools and knowledge. If you’re starting a business, or watching the market - it’s obvious that things are changing, drastically. Gansky argues that our old market prospered on the fact that stuff became cheap, and then credit became cheap and so we filled our lives with crap - and not things we actually care about or need.
The Mesh is the trend that is pushing our highly connected and ever-more-open society into offering more services that can be shared within a market, community, or value chain.
Netflix. Kickstarter. Crushpad. These are Mesh businesses, and they are the vanguard of the next huge companies.
The open web is spilling into our offline world.
The Mesh offers dozens of great concise case-studies, and has practical examples of how successful companies are implementing Mesh thinking. If you’re getting ready to start a business or want to get a glimpse of where business is heading, this book is for you.
Oh, and if you’d be so kind. I would love if you recommend me in the tumblr directory here.
