Mark P. McDonaldConventional wisdom says that digital natives who were raised with the Internet are expected to drive technical demands higher and higher simply because they are familiar with technology. CIOs and IT groups face challenges to upgrade solutions and tools in order to match what digital natives have available in the consumer marketplace.
Here is an observation that may go against that conventional wisdom.
Video is part of the digital native’s supposed bill of rights – thinks that IT has to get right to be relevant in a world driven by consumer IT. It’s a bill in terms of what they expect to get, not a constitutional document. There are other things on the bill like mobility, messaging, etc. But in the area of video people seem to recognize that good enough technology is ok.
Video conferencing, telepresence and other advanced technologies represent an important and growing technology market. While these applications can create value, many of the people I talk with seem to get along just fine with consumer based services like video chat, video Skype and the like. Are there higher resolution solutions, yes. Are there ones with more complex capabilities, certainly. But people are reporting that these basic services are just fine for what they need to do.
One sign supporting this is the use of these lower resolution video systems on commercial television. Oprah talks to people via Skype, same with some news reports coming from oversees. If its good enough for them, people including digital natives see it as good enough for their needs.
Taking this observation to the extreme, perhaps these digital natives do recognize the difference between all the bells and whistles and the things that need to work right. If that is the case, then rather than inflating expectations, perhaps digital natives will be a more rational force for technology saying – this is good enough but what I really need is this …
I said more rational not less demanding.
What do you think?
Category: Personal Observation Tags: Innovation, IT strategy, personal musing, product innovation
1 response so far ↓
1 jfbauer January 25, 2010 at 8:53 pm
As noted, all the advanced tele-presence technology is slick and all, but my interactions with the technology natives suggests Facebook, twitter, IM, et.al. provide a level of interaction coupled with simplicity and iphone-like convenience that suggests the overhead of more advanced solutions is unneeded.
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