the current and future driver of the economy

Ideas.

No big surprise.  But the way that these ideas are being served up in the present and near future is changing.  Traditionally ideas (whether they were inventions, concepts, music, games, whatever) were served up to the public by big bulky corporate structures that could market, distribute, and sell these to a wide audience.

The advent of the internet economy has changed the rules.  You can now literally take something from your mind and put it out there for the public at large to buy or support directly without the filters of the corporations getting in the way.

This poses unique opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs.

Opportunities:

Profit

This would allow a severe redistribution of the profits from grossly favoring corporations to totally favoring artists.  Something that those in the music industry have wanted for a long time.

Creative license

Too often it is that when someone with an idea goes to a corporation that they not only “tweek” the idea to suit some corporate requirement but they may actually change the total intent and purpose of the idea.

Distribution control

Corporations need to make profit on all their product lines.  Often they will bundle bad products with good ones to try to make money on all that they make.  With distribution control you get the right to sell your own product individually.

Challenges

Marketing and advertising

The thing that corporations bring to the table is their support abilities.  In particular they can research potential markets and craft advertising campaigns to help promote the product.  Not something that an individual can do easily.

legal challenges

Whether its patent infringement or researching copyright laws.  Again something big corporations can easily do that individuals cannot.

I think the biggest challenge in the future information economy is simply finding ideas to present to the public.  The people with the ideas need to wake up and begin moving onto the internet stage to make themselves heard.  Collectives of artists, designers, inventors need to form to band together to be able to present their ideas to the public on an equal footing with the corporations.