The Next Big Thing...Technology to Support Business Culture (not just function)

4-17-08

Driving into work I was listening to a story about how people across the world were rioting over food prices. Even some Middle East countries, flush with oil money, had riots over the cost of food. As the impact of high oil prices begins to constrict around business I began to postulate how technology can make business less reliant on oil.

In some ways, we’ve already begun the process. Virtual teams, reduced travel using videoconferencing, and working from home all contribute to oil savings. The biggest shortcoming in this first wave of distributed work environment is the challenge for the communication that occurs between colleagues. This cultural communication, as I term it, is essential to business success. More than just the water cooler talk, it involves seeing people in meetings, reading body language, and being able to pop into someone’s office for advice or feedback. A lack of opportunity to communicate in a face-to-face environment is what prevents managers, supervisors, and other team/department oriented workers from working from home. In some cases, this type of human interaction is what separates our home environment from our work environment and give us a sense that we’re “working”.

Anecdotally, which is my way of saying I have no research but my own experiences, this type of interaction varies in frequency. Some days, it seems like meetings, conversation, and group problem solving dominate one’s day. Other days, one just hunkers down with the door closed while churning out documents, reports, and deliverables. Herein lies the challenge. When we’re working in our office or cubicle, we might as well be working in our basement. There is no advantage, given technology, to be at the office. But when we’re needed – for a meeting, for feedback, for an immediate problem, then the accessibility for communication, and especially face-to-face communication, becomes an issue. And while the telephone has some merit, nothing beats a 20 minute impromptu face-to-face team meeting to overcome a new challenge and re-energize the effort.

So the next big thing in business, prompted by the oil prices, commuting, and the inefficiency of driving (even with cell phones), is Virtual Reality. I’m not sure how it will work, but it will be a technology, despite some unevenness of implementation, that will rise to dominate how we do business. I’m interested to what you feel how this virtual reality will take form. Here are some of my ideas:

 Holograms- I don’t know much about 3-D technology. I do know that scans, compression, and transmission of all kinds of images have progressed to the point where this might be feasible.

 Virtual World – If Second Life could be controlled by your real movement and if SL could show emotion, it might be worth actually using. SL has a lot of potential, but it still needs more input from your REAL avatar, you. For casual and recreational users of SL, the fact that nothing in SL needs to connect to their real life, body, or feelings is exhilarating. In order to do business and communicate, this feature is a drawback.

 Video – no company is really enthused about videoconferencing because the technical requirements prevent spontaneity and, let’s face it, we all look bad 2D. Some work needs to be done to get this technology usable.

Currently, technology has been refined to support the functional aspects of our jobs: documents, conversations, analysis tools, and access to corporate resources. The next big thing will be the recognition that place isn’t important as long as we can replicate the important human interactions that occur in the corporate office. If we can, then everyone can work from home a few days a week, save the fuel and commute time, and still have the sense that they “worked”. Virtual Reality Distributed Work, trust me Dustin, it’s the next big thing….!