The History of Personal Enterprise Networks
08.11.2005 by Brian Mulconrey

Monday, January 18, 2021 � Today�s personal enterprise network driven economy seems so natural that it�s hard to remember the era before this structuring of collective customer-investor-citizen power. Sure, democracy is an old idea. But it was just a little over 10 years ago that we paid third parties to secure our own credit history information, allowed ill-informed politicians to make huge un-funded financial commitments impacting us, and sold our aggregated purchasing power for a fraction of its real value.

Today we take it for granted that our personal enterprise network (PEN) managers will act on our behalf to manage our entire network of enterprise relationships including managing our personal information assets and negotiating with employers, advertisers and others seeking access to our skills, limited attention bandwidth, and purchasing power. The rise of PEN Managers was a revolutionary step in empowering individuals to make informed decisions across the entire spectrum of their lives while facilitating collective investments in the future. 

Any history of this huge growth industry - last year PEN management fees exceeded $65 billion globally � must start with the foundational role played by personal health records (PHR). In the first decade of the 21st century, our personal health records were a mess. Every health services provider kept their own files. This information was virtually impossible to quickly aggregate or combine. When the first comprehensive PHR services hit the market in late 2006, consumers willingly paid the base monthly fee of $5.99. Over the years these records expanded to the point where today virtually every health professional assumes that your entire medical history and personal genome will be readily accessible in order to precisely target appropriate treatments to your personal genetic make-up.

The next major force that drove the early evolution of PEN management was the logical expansion of PHR services to support the management of �all� of our personal information, not just personal health information. This resulted in the rise of personal information managers who aggregated our personal information assets and negotiated access to these assets on our behalf. It wasn�t long before it became obvious that this was about a whole lot more than information. These entities were managing our entire network of enterprise relationships while shattering long-standing retail, advertising, and manufacturing business models in the process.

In her prophetic 2011 book, "Smashing the Producer/Consumer Divide," anthropologist <Susan Raje> described the role that personal enterprise networks were playing in allowing consumers to perform functions that had previously been performed inside companies and by government agencies. PEN managers were relentless in driving cost out of virtually every product and service category, positioning individuals to orchestrate their personal networks of enterprise innovation and personal supply chains.

The PEN management industry also played a central role in driving down enterprise costs in what we once referred to as the "developed" and the "developing" worlds. Today a quality standard of living consumes only 15% of the human and natural resources required in 2005. At the same time, the definition of a quality standard of living has actually improved to include "necessities" that were considered "luxuries" at the turn of the century. 

In 2000 it was obvious that eBay had created a pioneering business model but it wasn't immediately clear that this was just the first step in a process of putting individuals in a position to weave personal enterprise networks that cut across virtually every product and service category. In 2000, people had so little control over their personal information that it was actually possible to "steal" another person's identity. It was time for a change. The recognition that WE are the rightful owners of our personal information, purchasing power, and political power grew into one of the most important new industries of the early 21st century.

<> = Indicates a fictional person. Any similarity to a real person is purely coincidental.

� 2005 - All Rights Reserved.