2. Information technology enables systemic change
Information technology enables systemic change—by which the mentioned opportunities are realized (alt. “Information Age comes of age.”) Wikipedia altered the way an encyclopedia is written; World of Warcraft altered the way games are played; both show that information technology now can enable us to radically change the conventional ways in which people worldwide collaborate and co-create knowledge and resolve challenges.
The above image, of a rocket-powered tricycle, is there to remind us that this opportunity has hitherto largely remained unexploited. Rather, the powerful technology tends to be simply added to existing systems and ways of doing things—as a powerful rocket engine might be added to vastly enhance a speed of a vehicle that has not been constructed benefit from such power. This looks fancy, but... The resulting vision—of a mature Information Age, where information technology enables the changes described in #1—is perceived to be as natural as using the rocket engine to create—rockets, and passenger jets!