Creating Techonomic Metrics

A techonomic metric (abbreviated as TM) is a data measurement that provides insight
into trends by combining the impact of technology advance on the economics of a
given endeavor. This chapter extends your understanding of this process by
constructing TMs for the four historical pillars of organizations revealed in the
preceding technology timeline. The TM is a means of comparison for an endeavor
in one of several ways:

1. Trends for an endeavor over time: A TM can monitor the same endeavor
at different points in time, revealing the impact of technology and economics.
For example, how much did it cost to distribute information via
a book at different periods in history? Techonomic metrics reveal the
telling example of the ancient $300,000 Torah, today reduced to the $0.85
Gideon Bible.

2. Different technical approaches to the same endeavor: A TM can provide
measurements of two competing approaches to the same endeavor, for
example, how much it costs today to distribute information via a traditional
book, or CD-ROM, or online.

3. Different cultural approaches to the same endeavor: A TM can provide
measurements for performing the same endeavor in different cultures
based on infrastructure, labor costs, transportation costs, communication
costs, etc. For example, how much does it cost to distribute information
to most of a society’s population via the infrastructure available?

A good techonomic metric includes components of technological performance
and economic cost for all key elements of the endeavor. To be actionable, a TM
should be objective, and the data upon which it is constructed should be verifiable.
When historic data is used that precedes contemporary currency (i.e., dollars prior
to ~1930), the economic component of the TM should be based on a definable
economic quantity, such as labor hours, land utilization, or individual human capacity.
A useful TM will reveal a trend for a complex endeavor in simple, compelling
terms. It may also clearly reveal where a technology breakthrough will move an
endeavor from the experimental realm to mass acceptance because of cost reductions
or performance enhancement.