The Next Big Thing

Internet was new to many people in the early 1990s. I recall when the Government department I worked with had its website in 1995, a media conference was held. When Hong Kong enacted its world class Copyright Ordinance in 1997, it was thought that few would have the capability and patience to upload or download audio-visuals.

With the availability of a free website builder, I can now build and administer thematic websites of my own. As to the making available of copyright works over the Internet, I can upload or download my music videos efficiently. To help prove their originality, I can even deposit them in "one or more distributed electronic networks or databases" (using the legal phrase that stands for blockchain under s.224 of Delaware General Corporation Law, effective on August 1, 2017).

Visionary public and private businesses here and there knew the urgency, formed coalitions, created and communicated the change vision, formed partnerships, and are creating quick wins in right directions eg in the generally unregulated supply chain areas. To design, build and apply new blockchain-based business models require strategic partnerships, resources and activities to achieve the common transformation. I look forward to seeing businesses like acquisitions and trading of, stocks and shares, and virtual goods such as songs and movies, in a revolutionary, trustworthy and really cost-effective fashion.

Every big thing has a small beginning, and it might take another 20 years for blockchain to become the main stream technology for the 21st C information society. Still, circumstances are such that we should seize the small window of opportunity to invest our intelligence or in kind in the next big thing. I try to engage in the borderless collaborative process as much as I could as a Hongkonger - not as a job or a career, but a calling!

#TheNextBigThing