Speakers Bios & Abstracts

Platzhalter Speakers
Don Tapscott
CA

President and CEO The Tapscott Group

Biography

Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation, media, and the economic and social impact of technology and advises business and government leaders around the world. In 2011 Don was named one of the world’s most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50. He has authored or co-authored 14 widely read books including the 1992 best seller Paradigm Shift. His 1995 hit The Digital Economy changed thinking around the world about the transformational nature of the Internet and two years later he defined the Net Generation and the “digital divide” in Growing Up Digital. His 2000 work, Digital Capital, introduced seminal ideas like “the business web” and was described by BusinessWeek as “pure enlightenment.” Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything was the best selling management book in 2007 and translated into over 25 languages.

The Economist called his newest work Macrowikinomics: New Solutions for a Connected Planet a “Schumpeter-ian story of creative destruction” and the Huffington Post said the book is “nothing less than a game plan to fix a broken world.” Over 30 years he has introduced many ground-breaking concepts that are part of contemporary understanding. His work continues as a the Chairman of Moxie Insight, a member of World Economic Forum, Chancellor of Trent University, Adjunct Professor of Management for the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Martin Prosperity Institute Fellow.

Abstract

Applying Complexity Thinking to Solving Global Problems

As our opening speaker, Don Tapscott will give a brief introduction to complexity theory and then apply it to what is arguably the most difficult challenge facing the world – global problem solving and governance.  Traditional approaches are based on nation states cooperating in global institutions like the UN, World Bank. IMF, G20 or G8.  Only states are allowed a vote and each organization has a traditional hierarchical bureaucracy.  It is assumed that there are a finite number of players that need to be involved; that order exists or is possible;  that solutions come from the top and can be imposed; that great leaders should act on behalf of inert citizens.

But today, in part thanks to the Internet which radically drops transaction and collaboration costs a new paradigm is becoming clear. Dynamic, emergent and sometimes resilient networks involving millions of stakeholders are self-organizing to bring about change.  These networks embrace, active participation, uncertainty and constantly changing conditions, and they are becoming material — holding  great promise for solving global problems and governing an volatile and complex planet.

Presentation