Jack SantosI love how the fragmentation of communication is actually moving away from appropriate use, and moving to duplicative use, amplifying the total volume of messages on the planet — while real content or (more accurately) unique thought is growing in proportion to population growth – no small number by itself. This has probably been a trend since Gutenberg, and it won’t stop now.
I suppose, in Kurzweillian fashion, we can make a case that the number of new ideas is a function of man’s continuing integration with machine, amplified by the number of connections we each make because of the increased opportunity for communications. The average person, in the 1800s could be expected to rarely stray more than 50 miles from home, and the total number of friends that they were on a first name basis would likely be in the 100s. Teenagers today pride themselves with friend lists in the 1000s. Yet research has shown a point of diminishing returns to huge friend lists. And our wanderings, automotive or otherwise, promise to bring down the ecosystem.
And then there is this maxim: “Sending a message does not necessarily mean it was received”. This is as true for verbal and physical communication as it is for electronic. It’s the rule that launches millions of therapist sessions. So we try sending again, and again… and again.
Our organizations, with some degree of infatuation with technology, continue to throw solutions against the wall to see if communication “sticks”. Today, we may find the same thought, idea, post in multiple forums, multiple media, often just copied. Let’s see, should I post this to my distribution list in email? on my wall on facebook? maybe at the group in linked in? Oh – don’t forget the wiki, or the current darling of legacy windows info-sharing: SharePoint. Maybe even it’s barefoot half-cousin: Lotus connections. Naw – let’s edit it down to fit Twitter. Or create a video on YouTube.
As marketers continue to refine how to amplify the amplification, and generate more messages, one can only wonder when the whole trend will hit critical mass and collapse into a new dark age.
So maybe the real challenge is to determine appropriate use? Or the goal of a smart organization is to limit choice, and message media, in the pursuit of profit? Focus on effective channels, not ALL channels? Just a thought.
My choice was a blog post. Let the amplification begin.
Message received?
Category: Cloud Future Predictions Tags: Cloud, consumerization, culture, IT relevance, mobility, network, Predictions, Wireless
2 responses so far ↓
1 Chris Taylor January 25, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Jack, I can see your point about focusing on effective channels. However, I think that there needs to be a bit of the “throw solutions against the wall to see if communication ‘sticks’”. With the pace of business change increasing, there are severe penalties to getting left behind, from lost business to brain drain.
Not everyone can work for a Google, Apple or any one of the many Silicon Valley companies that have ping pong tables and Monday massages, but if a company allows itself to become too far out of the ‘modern’ work scene, the only way to attract human capital is to pay a great deal. Law firms do it and don’t need to be too attractive in their work environment, but they can afford to pay the dollars to make up for it. For the rest of the world, the work force needs to believe that if their work place goes away, they have choices and won’t be a dinosaur trying to find a new job or career. Yes, it is ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, but I don’t see how else it would play out.
There is also a fundamental shift underway that Seth Godin calls the “pick yourself” concept. If we don’t intentionally use the means at our disposal to create our own uniqueness, we will be locked in the economy where we wait to be ‘picked’ for a job, ‘picked’ for promotion, and so on. Getting to the point where you voice is relevant means mastering the forms of communication available, even if at first it is painstaking.
I’ll run the risk of duplication and wasted messages (that are unheard) until I figure out the best way to be relevant.
2 Education ERP Consultant January 27, 2012 at 9:20 am
Another area where ERP can be useful is order tracking. When a company receives orders for a product, being able to properly track the orders can allow the company to get detailed information on their customers and marketing strategies. If different software packages are being used, this data may not be consistent.