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...people sharing with people, not computers sharing with computers...
The Internet harbors illegal activity. Dot-coms make
millionaires and break them. Interconnected e-mail spreads viruses. We
buy gifts with ease online, but we're worried about someone swiping our
credit card numbers or whether the items will really leave the
warehouse.
We expected the Internet to transform the
communication profession and business, not to mention our personal
lives, for the better. That's a lot to ask of technology that appeared
on most desktops less than a decade ago. It's understandable, though,
because it came on with such force that many people were sure it would
change everything in no time.
Efficient
It would bring efficiency for one thing. Communicators could deliver
the news and information online – just in time – without killing trees.
It's true that many publishing operations have redefined themselves in
the wake of the Web, but for the most part paper publishing has not
disappeared, certainly not in corporate communications.
Take
Hewlett-Packard, for example. Itself a world leader in technology, the
company recently reinvented its employee magazine, and the result –
called Invent – is so popular that employees seek out extra copies to
show off to others.
Some technology companies born after
the World Wide Web skipped paper and went directly to digital
communication. Annual reports abound online now. The paperless office
prediction didn't happen, though: Paper use per pound per person has
more than doubled in 25 years.
Productive
The concept of increased productivity certainly appealed to me. If I
could accomplish more with technology, I'd use those leftover minutes
for leisure. But I know of only a few communicators who have been able
to scrounge up discretionary time – and that's because of the tight
labor market, not technology time savings. These are the people whose
employers have accepted their demands to cut back to a part-time
schedule.
My other communicator acquaintances who have time
for leisure are those who retired early, just in time to attend their
offspring's high school graduation. Most of the other communicators I
know appear on Dr. Laura's Top 10 Guilty Parents List for failure to
spend quality time with their kids.
Instant
Productivity gains that we did make in the last decade translated into
a robust economy, according to conventional wisdom. But we just
channeled any discretionary time right back into work. Whether that
will keep the economy propped up in this decade is still to be seen,
but one thing is for sure: We're so focused on work, we usually can
squeeze in our own personal Internet access time only during lunch or
after work. The information may be available instantly, but it may take
us a week to carve out time to look. How about search engines to search
out some free time?
For every promise, there's an equal and
opposite predicament, as the business soothsayers told us when all this
commotion stared. We knew that it would take years – lots of them – to
figure out the best uses of the Internet.
The Web has become
a reflection of the main players. Technologists have coded it for
Moore's Law-sized exponential growth. Communicators have saturated it
with information to the point of over load. Marketers have turned it
into an electronic catalogue and digital direct mail. Utilities have
streamlined access at commodity prices.
Still there's something mission – or cowering in the corner.
Community
If the future of the Web is in the hands of today's teenagers, instant
messaging and online games are a glimpse of what's to come. The same
goes for Napster, in whatever form it takes once the legal issues are
ironed out. The Web is about connections. People sharing with people,
not computers sharing with computers.
I hold out hope for
collaboration. This promises offers a real justification for business
technology and ample opportunities for communication professionals.
Or at least for online elections.
© 2001, Sheri Rosen. This article first appeared in Communication World, February-March 2001, published by the International Association of Business Communicators.
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