Week 3 Lecture Reflection

The week three lecture focused heavily upon the network society (greatly detailed by Manuel Castells) and also discussed open source communities. Prior to the lecture I never knew what an open source community was or that they existed. The lecture detailed how networks are flexible, adaptable, decentralized and distributed and I learnt that the decentralized characteristic of networks makes them more dynamic than traditional hierarchical structured organisations. A significant point made in the lecture was that the network is the enterprise; that is that what connects the nodes of a network, the flows of information and the people within it are the enterprise. I also learnt about the relationship between the network society and the informational/new/network economy, which has seen the shift from industry towards knowledge. Knowledge has now become the economic driver of innovation and productivity. This is strongly linked to Richard Florida’s notion of the Creative Class. I’m uncertain if I agree with the idea of a Creative Class. Part of me wants to concur but another part wants to be cynical. The material in the lecture regarding the network society, new economy, Internet and organisational structures are all current topics that are important because they concern the development of today’s societies, economies, organisations, communities and the creative industries across the globe.