One conversation with a customer was enough to understand the power of this data driven world and the key role we play in connecting people across the world.

I'd like to summarize the conversation with this customer in a couple of paragraphs. We will have an informal interview with this customer in the a few days – if they agree to chat with us, of course. If you want to get an email letting you know about upcoming interviews in the Drive Time Podcast go here. Now, of course forth with my thoughts.

The world is an ever expanding net of interconnect people. Today, knowledge can travel from one corner of the world to the other in a matter of seconds. A few years ago that flow of information was mostly unidirectional – from developed countries to less developed countries. Nowadays is mutual collaboration between nations over one network.

The internet revolution, from my point of view, was fueled by the innovation that emerged from a free society that was able to nest the open source community. But we all know that – open source is a revolution – can you tell me where are we going from here?

We are now in a world where data is the most valuable asset and information transfer is the new currency of this highly connected world. If you know how to manage your data and protect your key information you are more likely to remain a viable option to your customers. We are at the point where a great portion of the world can access information under their own terms and will accept no other way but their own way.

We can't expect to be linear any longer – companies need to evolve and adapt as fast as they can to keep up with the rapid social evolution the internet has brought upon us.

So where is innovation coming from? Is the future going to bring us a society of innovators where peer-to-peer innovation and collaboration will be the rule instead of the big guys bringing innovation or will it be a hybrid model?