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Brian Arthur is a soft-spoken, world-renowned economist with a poignant observational punch. Arthur is on the external faculty at our globally big-thinking Santa Fe Institute and a professor at Stanford.

In his works, Arthur explains the differences between the new economy and the old, normal economy better than anyone I have come across.

The lofty new economy buzzword has been tossed around like a beach ball at a rock concert for nearly decade, if not longer. The new economy is the phenomenon that was once described synonymous with the "dot com" boom. Now, in progression, it is quickly emerging as the "Web 2.0" world, to borrow the newest phrase.

Arthur's new economy ideas are put in motion at the New Mexico Tech Association's Summer Networking Event, happening Tuesday starting at 5:30 p.m. at Savoy Bar & Grill, 10601 Montgomery Blvd. N.E. A fee is charged for admission.

If Arthur were in Albuquerque tomorrow, he would applaud the Summer Networking Event as an excellent local example of the combinatorial new economy at work.

For his economic efforts, Arthur is the winner of the prestigious Schumpeter Prize in Economics, among a number of international awards.

It is an award given in honor of Joseph Schumpeter, who is famous for forecasting the evolution of technological cycles from the steam engine to the Information Age and the knowledge age and supercomputers, all from the early 1900s - when such big thoughts were the stuff of science fiction.

Arthur defines the new economy as one employing new combinatorial networks, where the normal interpersonal connection barriers are overcome, rapidly speeding up conversations and the exchange of knowledge.

Certainly the Internet and its most popular offspring, the World Wide Web, are the enablers of this sea change. The new economy is your Myspace.com page or your Linkedin.com profile, or the eBay/PayPal marketplace, if not InnoCentive.com.

The analog for the old economy in Arthur's assessment is the radial model, or in common terms, the broker model, where information is communicated through more centralized processes.

When you fly Southwest Airlines, you are flying a combinatorial network-type model, going from point to point. When you fly Delta, you are flying the hubs-and-spokes radial network type, flying first to Delta's Atlanta or Salt Lake City hubs before going to your spoke destination.

In communication, the combinatorial model allows you to go directly to the place you want to be, or at least often much faster. Economic progress happens at the speed of a region's conversation. If more buzz is happening in the economy, the new buzzword becomes reality.

The New Mexico Info Tech and Software Association, New Mexico Biotech Biomed Association, and the New Mexico Optics Industries Association have combined their networking powers at this main event to allow rapid connectivity among our technorati.

These associations represent the best of our region's technology employers, talents and service providers.

One of our great, latent strengths in New Mexico is how quickly we can get involved in the larger makings of our economy in collaborative unison with our peers. One of our weaknesses is the ironic flip side - that we do not take advantage of this strength often enough.

These organizations are volunteer-driven efforts and have been cultivating technology and business-development conversations for about a decade in the community.

Technology jobs are a small percentage of our overall job base. However, technology companies and organizations typically pay two to five times more per job than many other jobs in the economy. The faster we expand our technology opportunities the faster other parts of the economy benefit as well.

Book your seat on the combinatorial network tech express and buy your ticket to the Tech Association's Summer Networking event.

I will be there. If you attend, please come by and say hello. Success in technological pursuits is all about what you know and whom you know. We make it happen.

Burge is president of the New Mexico IT & Software Association and principal at Proactive Teams.