A new industrial revolution is taking place driven by hardware, software and networks. Digital technologies are transforming businesses, economies, and societies more quickly and more profoundly than ever before. At the same time, three key factors are converging—and colliding– in today’s digital economy: The continuing acceleration of digital technologies; the fact that our skills, organizations and institutions are lagging this pace, and the realization that business-as usual won’t solve this problem.
To study and address these economic, social and business consequences of digitization, the MIT Sloan School has announced a major new, Initiative on the Digital Economy with leading-edge research in four primary areas:
- The Future of Work
- Big Data
- Business Model Transformation
- Networks
“We’ve launched the Initiative on the Digital Economy to meet this grand challenge by adding to our faculty, our curriculum, and our research efforts,” according to MIT CDB Director, Erik Brynjolfsson who will lead the new effort along with Andrew McAfee, Associate Director and Principal Research Scientist at the CDB.
Describing the initiative at the recent CDB annual meeting, Professor Brynjolfsson said that the effort will provide thought leadership, research, education and events featuring MIT faculty and researchers as well as in partnership with others.
Brynjolfsson and McAfee say they will bring MIT Sloan thought leadership to address the workplace transformations and prospects for growth brought by digital technology. Digital advancement, Brynjolfsson says, is “creating trillions of dollars of wealth as it increases productivity, and that’s good news.” However, he continues, “our skills and our organizations need to adapt faster to keep up with the new technologies –and so must MIT Sloan.” With the generous support of individual, foundation, and corporate philanthropy, IDE will be able to focus its resources on these opportunities and pressures, he said.
To learn more about the IDE, and how you can participate, please click here. For more information, http://digital.mit.edu/ide