Stumble It!

The European Commission have recognised the massive strategic economic importance of Digital Business Ecosystems by publishing a hugely impressive multi-disciplinary book (240 pages) which seems to resonate with my own implementation-oriented ideas on Bioteams and The Networked Enterprise and merits detailed study by anyone interested in the convergence of business networks, digital technology and systems/ecosystems thinking. Download it free.

Digital Business Ecosystems (DBEs) defined

The DBE website defines a DBE as the enabling technologies and the paradigms supporting Regional Growth and Innovation in Business Ecosystems mainly composed by SMEs.

It goes on to elaborate that….

A natural life ecosystem is defined as a biological community of interacting organisms plus their physical environment. In the same way, a business ecosystem is "the network of buyers, suppliers and makers of related products or services” plus the socio-economic environment, including the institutional and regulatory framework.

A digital ecosystem is a self-organising digital infrastructure aimed at creating a digital environment for networked organisations that supports the cooperation, the knowledge sharing, the development of open and adaptive technologies and evolutionary business models.

The digital ecosystem approach transposes the concepts to the digital world, reproducing the desiderable mechanisms of natural ecosystems. As several interacting natural ecosystems exist, several digital ecosystems exists due to differentiation and the development of endemic product and services tailored to specific local needs.

A digital ecosystem results from the combination of :
1) the free digital ecosystem knowledge- and service-oriented infrastructure, as a public common resource ;
2) the digital components, services and the formalised knowledge which "populate" such infrastructure .

A digital ecosystem means to be the ICT-enabling technology for business ecosystems based on the dynamic and amorphous interaction among a multiplicity of small organisations.

Business Ecosystem + Digital Ecosystem = ( Innovation Ecosystems or Digital Business Ecosystem )

A Digital Business Ecosytem or Innovation Ecosystem results from the structurally coupled and co-evolving digital ecosystem and business ecosystem. A network of digital ecosystems, will offer opportunities of participation in the global economy to SMEs and to less developed or remote areas. These new forms of dynamic business interactions and global co-operation among organisations and business communities, enabled by digital ecosystem technologies, are deemed to foster local economic growth. This will preserve local knowledge, culture and identity and contribute to overcome the digital divide.

Download the DBE book (240 pages)

Check the Table of Contents

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Ken Thompson is an expert practitioner in the area of bioteaming, swarming, virtual enterprise networks, virtual professional communities and virtual teams and has published two landmark books:

Bioteams: High Performance Teams Based on Nature’s Best Designs

The Networked Enterprise: Competing for the future through Virtual Enterprise Networks

Ken writes the highly popular bioteams blog which has over 500 articles on all aspects of bioteams (aka organizational biomimicry) - in other words how human groups can learn from nature's best teams.

Ken is also founder of an exciting European technology company Swarmteams which provides unique patent-pending bioteaming technologies for all shapes and sizes of groups, social networks, business clusters, virtual/mobile communities and enterprises. Swarmteams enables groups to be more responsive and agile by fully integrating their mobile phones and the web with bioteam working techniques. The latest Swarmteams implementation is SwarmTribes which helps musicians and bands form a unique collaboration with their fans for mutual benefit.

Tags: autopoiesis, DBE, digital business ecosystem, ecosystems, social networks, The Networked Enterprise

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Bioteams Books Reviews

The coming shape of organizations and teams

August 23, 2005 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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