What is the "edge"?

The following excerpt about the various, socially relevant meaning of the "edge" is borrowed from "Connecting Globalization & Innovation: Some Contrarian Perspectives" by John Hagel and John Seely Brown (PDF) presented at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland January 25 – 30, 2006, so it has an economic context to it but I think some of what they say can also be applied to the broader evolutionary context.

The edge is becoming the core. We recently wrote a book on The Only Sustainable Edge
because edges – on many levels – are becoming more important:

· Edge in the sense of strategic advantage
o Traditional sources of advantage are eroding and we all face the challenge of
identifying new sources of advantage that can sustain superior performance.

· Edge in the sense of peripheries
o Peripheries, while often relatively marginal in terms of current revenue
generation, represent centers of innovation because they provide early visibility
into new needs and new capabilities. These peripheries can take many different
forms, whether it is the edges of our existing institutions, geographic edges like
emerging economies or demographic edges represented by younger generations
bringing new needs and behaviors to markets around the world.

· Edge in the sense of boundaries
o Boundaries become fertile areas for innovation because they provide
opportunities for people with different experiences, beliefs and needs to
encounter each other.

· Edge in the sense of performance limits
o Innovation provides the catalyst to push the performance limits of institutions.