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Success factors for digital economies - information symmetry

In previous posts I've written about presentations on the trajectories of digital economies in Africa and Norway. Both of these were based on an unfinished framework I've been developing that tries to describe the success factors for national economies in the Early Digital Economy. I won't recap this framework in detail as its described in the posts linked above, but at the highest level it breaks the success factors into four categories:

  1. Pervasive access to computing
  2. Information symmetry
  3. Innovative AND entrepreneurial culture
  4. Digital skills and education
In order to complete the framework and starting building a broader data set to test it I've now populated one of the two missing sections, information symmetry. This topic breaks into 4:
  • Unfiltered access to information, enabling people to have open conversations and access (if not a preference for) content from every potential point of view. This is vital for true innovation as a fear of repercussions is significant disincentive to think differently
  • Open data proliferation from public and private sector organisations, enabling innovators to access information that enables validated learning and re-examination of accepted wisdom
  • Digital organisation structures at a team, business unit, company, municipal and national level that reduce hierarchy, enable collisions between people with ideas and skills
  • A culture of objective measurement ensuring that the true results of innovation and iteration can be understood and learned from in a way that reduces wastage
The above leads to a more complete framework, shown below.


I'm now working on gathering the actual metrics that suggest performance in these areas so that I can figure out whether they actually point to anything and/ or are consistent. I'm also thinking about the skills and education element, in the spirit of leaving the best until last. 

Interesting though all this is it's fitting in around the completion another project that I'll hopefully be able to talk about in the next few months. Mysterious ;). Thoughts greatly appreciated.
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