Wirearchy is emerging ...

"a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on information, knowledge, trust and credibility, enabled by interconnected people and technology"

(Jon Husband, 1999)


What Is Wirearchy ?

We all know and understand hierarchy - the enduring principle of the institutions that govern us and in which we work and live. The people at the top of the institutions control the agendas and make the decisions.

That's changing.

Taking decisions and managing organized activities are being impacted in powerful ways by interconnected networks of people and technology. The Internet is connecting customers, employees and communities and empowering them with information in ways never before possible.

Every week the impact of hyperlinked, horizontal and vertical networks is being felt more clearly and in more insistent ways. The impacts are creating new dynamics in organizations as well as emergent forms of organized activities that are based on participation and peer-to-peer interaction, resulting in nimble, responsive, and results-focused networked group / team structures.

And ... over the last five years, it has become pretty darned clear that the impacts of these living social networks will only grow, both in depth and reach.

A shift in the ways activities are planned and managed is occurring in many spheres of human activity, from command-and-control to coordinate-and-channel. When customers have more power and employees want to communicate and be heard, the dynamics have to change.

A new organizing principle is emerging, called Wirearchy ...


a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on information, knowledge, trust and credibility,
enabled by interconnected people and technology


Wirearchy will continue to emerge and have impact. The generations coming into the workplace have interactive games, ICQ, Napster and chat rooms under their skin. They're equipped with smarter software, and they take interconnectedness for granted - it's second nature to them.

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Are you wondering about how the new social media ... hyperlinked blogs, wikis, video, podcasts and other forms of interlinked interactivity ... will affect your organization, your work, and relationships with customers, employees and constituents ?

I may be able to help.

Over the past decade I have been tracking and helping to articulate an emerging organizing principle directly related to the impacts of hyperlinked networks on the activities and structures of business, government, politics, education and other human activities.

The interconnectivity offered by the Internet enables increasingly horizontal and peer-to-peer based communications and interaction between people, whether they are friends, customers, colleagues, or citizens.

I combine experience and strategic foresight over the last decade in:

- knowledge management theory and practice
- designing and building Web 2.0 social publishing tools and using social media
- researching strategic trends and carrying out professional blogging

with a previous 15-year background leading projects addressing human resources strategy and organizational design :

- the design, implementation and facilitation of organizational developmental initiatives
- strategic planning and organizational change


I co-authored the book "Making Knowledge Work - the arrival of Web 2.0", published in January 2008 by the ARK Group (UK).


I offer consulting, strategic research, briefings, workshops and coaching services that support practical and proactive initiatives for making the transition to operating in a networked environment.


Contact: jon(DOT)husband @ gmail.com or (1) 604-689-1671