This is not a new video, from what I can gather from searching the internet, it has been out there for a while. Did You Know, seen here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8, is a great look at the rate of change seen by the world, and also some comparisons between the US, India, and China in regards to the education of our kids and our population. One example being that the top 25% of India's population in terms of IQ is greater than the entire population of the US.
After watching this video a couple times, I took two things away from it. The first is easy. The rate of change in the world of technology is increasing, and the amount of information being created is also increasing at an exponential rate. Pretty easy to see even without the video, we all saw the demise of records when CD's came on line, and now we are watching the demise of the CD in favor of digital downloads (both illegal and legal). The difference is the amount of time needed to make that change, it took I am guessing a good 10 years to see CD's really supplant other media options, but digital downloads only took 2-3 years (again, a guess, not based on any actual knowledge on my part, just my observation).
I am in the business of selling technology and services around that technology, so change is not new, I make a good living off of it. It also gives me a good perspective in watching my customers and how they approach change. In the field of architecture and engineering, before I became an adult, there was a fundamental change that took those in the field from paper and pen to the computer. A big change for sure, but really only in media, they used the same processes for the most part, just now they did it on a computer. CAD started off, and still does today to a large degree, just mimic the old process that took place on paper (hence the use of layers and references and other techniques). Later, after I got in the business, another move took place which took some in the industry from a 2D CAD process to an object based process (for example, an architect now had software that behaved more like the real world, doors had to be placed in walls and if you moved a wall, connecting walls updated and changed). Still primarily a 2D process though, but it introduced a higher level of intelligence. Again the difference was that people were on paper for centuries, but only on CAD for a number of years before the next change. There are still organizations that have not moved to that next phase, and we are now in yet another shift, to model based design, where the entire project is now modeled in a database and everything in the design is coordinated. This shift took place just a few short years after the last one, again showing how quickly the shifts are taking place now. And there will no doubt be another one even sooner, probably a shift to more collaborative technology between organizations.
The point I am trying to make, is the real change that organizations need to start to make is not how to change technology or move to a new system, but think about it as a change process. The technology is now becoming such that the real winners are the organizations that can manage the process of change itself without hurting itself, thereby allowing them to keep up and take advantage quickly as new technology comes into the market. That is the real competitive advantage.
The second thing I pulled from the video, is how we approach education in this country. Looking at countries such as China and India, we stand a very good chance of falling behind in terms of intellectual power. In the future, I think information is going to be the differentiator, who can create it, and also more importantly, who can manage it and make it usable. Look at the success of Google, which is basically a company that doesn't really create anything, but rather catalogs various types of information and makes it easy for people to search and use it. We are seeing (and many lament) the move of low tech industries to third world countries for the low cost labor. What will remain will be service jobs, and those in information (creation and maintaining it), design, and business. We can sit around and complain about the loss of the old jobs, but the fact remains, it will happen, and continue to happen, and instead of complaining about, we need to change how we approach it. Our students need to be prepared for this changing world and made to realize that to make it in the future, they will need to be comfortable with technology.
5 days ago
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