The quiet revolution you're in. Like it or not.

The interesting thing about revolutions is that nobody knows they're happening until they're over. Up to that point, we get worried about anomalies, and try to get things back to normal.

So it is with centralisation. We have seen it (or often chosen not to see it) in the rise of everything from Napster to the organisation of Al Qaeda. It has been written about by leading thinkers like Ori Brafman and Seth Godin.

Established organisations have chosen to ignore it, to treat it like an anomaly that will disappear as we get back to normal. It won't, of course.

The major impact will not be on these organisations, with their bloated overheads and addiction to the industrial economy  models. Their shareholders will gradually desert them, and they will sink silently from view, the services and products they provided delivered by smaller, faster, more passionate advocates of the connection economy.

The real impact will be on those who choose to remain inhabiting them in the belief that they will b…