Looking back.

In fifty years, pop historians and management gurus will look back at the early 21st century and try to pinpoint what major cultural trends were already under way, only to be fully felt a generation later. They'll talk, certainly, about opening economies and rising global interconnectedness. And, of course, about asynchronous workforces--thousands of Indians diligently preparing back office reports as European and U.S. executives sleep or fly.

Time-shifting, too, will always be a trend worth remarking upon. At its simplest, you can time-shift conversations with e-mail, television programs with digital recorders, "radio" shows via podcasts and Web streaming. Even in-vitro fertilization, once a last chance for infertile couples, is fast becoming a lifestyle choice for some. Have babies whenever, it'll be fine.

Given that part of my job here is to pontificate without consequence, let me nominate another enormously important change: accountability. E-marl and electronic "paper" trails make it nearly impossible to fake your way through situations, no matter how plausible the excuse sounds.

Electronic leashes are contributing in no small way to that most modern and self-inflicted form of flagellation, unending stress. But it's also building a strong argument for an end to easy corruption. As we detail in this issue, corporate information bosses are under a huge strain to track back every single chat, note, voicemail, whatever, seven years hence, to meet U.S. accounting regulations. Burdensome, yes, but it's making a difference in how companies behave, which is on balance a good thing.

Government, too, is having to answer for the doings of their bureaucratic hordes. In this issue, we detail how government is dipping into high-quality consulting, as well as using the power of financial mass to move markets.

We'll all eventually have watchers watching us. Privacy will have to be defended. But for now, let it run and let's see how accountable we eventually become.

--Greg Brown

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