We will not only use the machines for their intelligence, we will also collaborate with them in ways that we cannot even imagine.
In this new wave of technology, you can't do it all yourself, you have to form alliances.
Several technological and political forces have converged, and that has produced a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration without regard to geography or distance - or soon, even language.
I use a lot of the Web 2.0 apps that I've seen out there, and I think there is incredible work going on there.
The best remote companies I've seen do almost everything online, via email and telephone. But they also get together face to face on a regular basis.
The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.
Every day at Skype, I am able to connect with employees from around the world and engage with them on a level that just is not possible through a conference call or email.
It's hard to propose a $100 laptop for a world community of kids and then not say in the same breath that you're going to depend on the community to make software for it.
I think that the most beautiful thing lately hasn't been in hardware or software per se but collaboration - the idea behind Napster, which uses the distributed power of the Internet as its engine.
We can collaborate with a Netscape employee or partner who's halfway around the world. We can distribute information and software to customers and shareholders, and get their feedback.
