atw: The New World Order, take 2
- From: "Christine Kent" <cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:48:30 +1100
This is a re-send of my original post, with the offending words changed.
Curious how no-one addressed the perfectly obvious true intent of the mail.
Too challenging? Too philosophical? Too deep?
There is a process whereby everyone respectfully shares their personal
understanding and perceptions, and together they reach a new understanding
that each, alone could not have reached. It is essentially different from
verbal combat where each person tries to destroy the argument (and
reputation) of the other by any means available. Let's see if we can avoid
combat and increase understanding, shall we?
Christine (the NF in an SJ world)
From: Christine Kent [mailto:cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, 16 November 2009 7:29 PM
To: 'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Re: Preferred font for corporate staff manuals
Guys
I know I am one of the few people on this group that has waded gung ho into
the new Web 2.0 world. I have a number of blogs, a facebook account, a you
tube channel, a twitter account that I rarely use, and dozens of other
logins that I set up but never used to all sorts of weird and wonderful
things. I belong to a number of social forums and conduct nearly all my
business on or through the web.
There is a reality "out there" that may be difficult to address because
no-one is researching it and in fact, no-one can research it. Whether we
like it or not, the non-business IT world has leapt a long way ahead of (or
to the side of) the business IT world, and it is all moving at such a speed
that research cannot possibly keep up.
I have conjectured that youngsters are being trained how to think, how to
learn and even how to read by the internet, which may even be exercising and
training totally different neural pathways to mainstream academic education.
There are no "experts" involved in designing this process. Web 2.0 junkies
will get what they choose to get through blogs, facebook, social forums and
the like. If someone sets the websites up in Arial (as per normal) they
will learn to feel comfortable reading Arial. As high level reading is not
a terribly necessary skill any more in their world (reading age 8 will
probably about do it), and writing even less so, they don't need to be all
that proficient - just good enough. My observation is that they read very
little and what they do read, they skim read, meaning they miss detail.
They get most of their education from one another and from YouTube. (There
is nothing you cannot learn now on YouTube.) There is little they want to
learn that they cannot learn from YouTube, high academic learning aside.
If I need any instruction on common computer programs, I go to YouTube where
some nice person will have videoed the process for me. If I want any news,
I get it from the web. I set up feeds on particular topics to my Google
account, so that it all comes to me. Even the news process and distribution
has changed its form courtesy of the web. Font is one really trivial aspect
of this change.
I am well aware that this is all scattered and anecdotal, but how do we get
it from the anecdotal to the researched? Who even knows this needs
research, let alone has the dollars to research it. It is still mostly out
of the gambit of educational and even corporate organisations, who still
have the internet locked down to workers and students, and so are still are
hugely unaware of what is happening. It's like the "real world" has closed
the shutters against the tornado going on outside. There is a new world and
new race of people living outside, but those shuttered inside are oblivious
to their existence.
All this means there CAN only be anecdotal evidence and observations from
intelligent people (of whom I am one, Peter) to watch what is happening in
stunned amazement and conjecture where it is taking us. Is there a point at
which the exponential rate of change implodes? I don't know. It still
seems to be accelerating at a seriously challenging rate. Dismiss it as
nonsense at your peril.
Christine
Other related posts:
- » atw: The New World Order, take 2 - Christine Kent
