Some thoughts on the relentless digitization of the world
November 13 2010, 2:06 PM
There was actually a time when businesses would debate whether or not it
was necessary to use PCs. Nevermind give one to every employee. Cost aside,
the argument was: businesses that use computers will compete and win
against those that don't. It may seem quaint now, but at the time it was a
hard argument to make. Nowadays the argument for increased technology is an easy one (Nick Carr
excepted). Business adopted the Internet relatively fast, and business has
jumped on mobile computing. Along the way the price of technology has dropped and the adoption of
technology has increased. I am sitting in a cafe with laptops and netbooks
and mobile devices all on display. Next year tablets will be ubiquitous. I was struck by this a few weeks ago: the publisher of the free newspaper,
Metro, had people handing them out in front of the subway. Metro, the free
paper that decimated mobile readership was now in turn being wiped out by
mobile devices. When I got on the subway and looked around, everyone
reading something was doing it on a device. Or listening to a device. And it is not just that the newspapers are online and the people are
reading them there. On my commute I read blogs. Or twitter. User generate
content. For as we all know, not only did those computers come with output
capability: they came with input capability too. Worse, it was a qwerty
keyboard! And yet millions adopted it and started creating content. Good
content. And search engines and social media sites made it easy to find
that content. And new technology makes it easier and easier to generate
that content. Indeed new devices interacting with sites on the web create more and more
content. Not just quantity, but quality. If I think back to those old
businesses that did not want to go to computers, I think the same is true
of any business that doesn't ask themselves: how can I greater digitize my
business in order to beat the competition? Once it was using spreadsheets
and faxes to beat the competition. Now it is mobile and FourSquare and
Facebook and Twitter. Soon it will be the Internet of Things, whereby every
part of your business itself is on the Internet, sending information back
and forth. And the businesses that cannot imagine how that will benefit
them will be overrun by those that can. Like imagination, the digitization of the world knows no bounds. As always, thanks for reading this. And if you respond, many thanks.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.
was necessary to use PCs. Nevermind give one to every employee. Cost aside,
the argument was: businesses that use computers will compete and win
against those that don't. It may seem quaint now, but at the time it was a
hard argument to make. Nowadays the argument for increased technology is an easy one (Nick Carr
excepted). Business adopted the Internet relatively fast, and business has
jumped on mobile computing. Along the way the price of technology has dropped and the adoption of
technology has increased. I am sitting in a cafe with laptops and netbooks
and mobile devices all on display. Next year tablets will be ubiquitous. I was struck by this a few weeks ago: the publisher of the free newspaper,
Metro, had people handing them out in front of the subway. Metro, the free
paper that decimated mobile readership was now in turn being wiped out by
mobile devices. When I got on the subway and looked around, everyone
reading something was doing it on a device. Or listening to a device. And it is not just that the newspapers are online and the people are
reading them there. On my commute I read blogs. Or twitter. User generate
content. For as we all know, not only did those computers come with output
capability: they came with input capability too. Worse, it was a qwerty
keyboard! And yet millions adopted it and started creating content. Good
content. And search engines and social media sites made it easy to find
that content. And new technology makes it easier and easier to generate
that content. Indeed new devices interacting with sites on the web create more and more
content. Not just quantity, but quality. If I think back to those old
businesses that did not want to go to computers, I think the same is true
of any business that doesn't ask themselves: how can I greater digitize my
business in order to beat the competition? Once it was using spreadsheets
and faxes to beat the competition. Now it is mobile and FourSquare and
Facebook and Twitter. Soon it will be the Internet of Things, whereby every
part of your business itself is on the Internet, sending information back
and forth. And the businesses that cannot imagine how that will benefit
them will be overrun by those that can. Like imagination, the digitization of the world knows no bounds. As always, thanks for reading this. And if you respond, many thanks.
-----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.