Don Tapscott Quotations

In one sense, the Internet is like the discovery of the printing press, only it's very different. The printing press gave us access to recorded knowledge. The Internet gives us access, not just to knowledge, but to the intelligence contained in people's crania, access to the intelligence of people on a global basis.

Collaboration is important not just because it's a better way to learn. The spirit of collaboration is penetrating every institution and all of our lives. So learning to collaborate is part of equipping yourself for effectiveness, problem solving, innovation and life-long learning in an ever-changing networked economy.

Wherever you are, design your life. Live the values of your generation.

Knowledge is exploding, so you need to commit yourself to a plan for lifelong learning.

Leadership is happening, but it's not coming from the leaders of the old institutions. Everywhere you look, you see these extraordinary, sparkling new initiatives that are under way.

In an age where everything and everyone is linked through networks of glass and air, no one - no business, organization, government agency, country - is an island. We need to do right by all our stakeholders, and that's how you create value for shareholders. And one thing is for sure - no organization can succeed in a world that is failing.

Industrial capitalism brought representative democracy, but with a weak public mandate and inert citizenry. The digital age offers a new democracy based on public deliberation and active citizenship.

The blanket assertion that corporations are people obfuscates the complex issues at play in the changing business world. Corporation are institutions. People are people.

If you work for and eventually lead a company, understand that companies have multiple stakeholders including employees, customers, business partners and the communities within which they operate.

Leaders of institutions everywhere have lost trust. The global economy is stalled and the world is deeply divided, too unequal, unstable and unsustainable.

Just as the Internet drops transaction and collaboration costs in business and government, it also drops the cost of dissent, of rebellion, and even insurrection.

The social world is transforming the way we create wealth, work, learn, play, raise our children, and probably the way we think.

Don't have work-life balance - at least in the sense of trying to escape from work so you can have a life. Work should be fun - so make work enjoyable and satisfying for everyone - among other reasons because it pays off.

The university is in danger of losing its monopoly, and for good reason. The most visible threat are the new online courses, many of them free, with some of the best professors in their respective fields.

There's a whole generation of young people who are faced with the so-called 'jobless recovery.' Necessity is the mother of invention. They are out there, all around the world, creating new companies.

We are at a punctuation point in human history where the Industrial Age and institutions have finally come to their logical conclusion. They have essentially run out of gas.

No one has shown any connection whatsoever between these games and tragic incidents such as Littleton, or to youth violence in general, ... But countless studies have shown a linkage of youth violence to factors such as poverty, lack of parental involvement, family violence, untreated mental illness, the proliferation of guns, substance abuse and illegal drug wars.

There is a fundamental change taking place in terms of how corporations create value and arguably, in terms of the core architecture of the corporation. I think it's the biggest change in a century in the ways that companies build relationships and interact with other entities, institutions in the economy and in society and arguably, the nature of the corporation itself.

Kids are very savvy about the technology. But I'm not sure they totally understand the implications of a billion people being able to see them doing whatever is posted.

When I noticed how my own children were effortlessly able to use all this sophisticated technology, at first I thought, 'My children are prodigies!' But then I noticed all their friends were like them, so that was a bad theory.

To be successful in a knowledge economy firms need to create learning organizations.

Throughout the 20th century, we created wealth through vertically integrated corporations. Now, we create wealth through networks. We are at a turning point in human history, where the industrial age has finally run out of gas.

Peering succeeds because it leverages self-organization—a style of production that works more effectively than hierarchical management for certain tasks.

Institutions are becoming naked, and if you're going to be naked … fitness is no longer optional. If you're going to be naked, you better get buff.

You think that social media is about hooking up online? For these kids [in the Tunisian Revolution], it was a military tool to defend unarmed people from murderers.

Your network is your filter.

The future is not something to be predicted, it’s something to be achieved,

Schools should be places to learn, not to teach.

Teachers are no longer the fountain of knowledge; the internet is.

Business cannot succeed in a world that is failing.

These kids [of the current generation] have no fear of technology ... sort of like I have no fear of a refrigerator.

To me, this is not an information age. It's an age of networked intelligence, it's an age of vast promise.

Holding back technology to reserve business models is like allowing blacksmiths to veto the internal combustion engine in order to protect their horseshoes.

All one needs is a computer, a network connection, and a bright spark of initiative and creativity to join the economy.

Companies that don't understand that these kids are different as consumers, are going to be in deep trouble, too. I mean they have huge power as consumers, much bigger than the baby boom per capita. We really need to wake up and understand. Because it's going to affect the brand, it will affect everything that we know about marketing.

This is the first generation of people that work, play, think and learn differently than their parents, ... They are the first generation to not be afraid of technology. It's like the air to them.

These kids are different, and they're about to change the world.

These kids are 80 million alone in the U.S. They're like a tidal wave. And we've all been sitting on the beach wondering what kind of day it's going to be and no one noticed the tsunami just off the horizon, one hundred yards high, that's about to sweep us all away. We've got the first generation to grow up digital, and you know it.