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A bit harsh wouldn't you say? Apply that to a traditional business....
I get what you mean but you're coming across as being quite harsh on those kids in the previous poster's example. Try and apply the same scenario in a typical office environment and you might see the value in what was done there.
Take your average IT team. They may need input from various departments in order to complete a roll-out of a technical solution. The project (or maybe the business) isn't big enough to warrant a project manager but it will make a difference day-to-day regardless. The users in the company may have gotten used to IM apps to get instant feedback from one another while they're sat at their desks and rely less on e-mail as a result as it seems less efficient and a greater hassle to administer. The IT team send out an e-mail to all staff asking for the info they need to complete the project. Are we going to get the info the IT team requires promptly?
Look - today's youth are used to multi-stream social communication via the Internet. Traditional methods for electronic communication (e-mail, forums or BBS, and IM) are falling out of favour while social media applications and blogging services are massively on the rise. By the time their kids are using the Internet to communicate the toolset will have changed again. The $64,000 question is: Why shouldn't we choose to use tools that the people we're communicating with are already familiar with? Surely that will solicit a greater response, regardless of the age group we're dealing with?
Reverse my example and my point still stands. If the company in my example used e-mail as a primary communication tool except the IT team (who used IM or what-have-you) the IT people would get a worse response using THEIR tool of choice than if they selected the user's tool of choice.
Yep, you don't always get what you want and we shouldn't pander to our kids' every whim but as IT people we should always pay attention to our users and serve their needs in the best way possible. Sometimes that really does mean doing things their way.
I'm sorry if this comes across as a personal attack or a litloe harsh in esponse - it isn't. I really do understand what you mean but felt the need to expand on my thoughts re: matching the user's needs. Of course, there's another layer here that I haven't gone into regarding moving technology forward (user: "but I've always used my BBS? Why should I use social media?") but I've gone on far too long already
Take your average IT team. They may need input from various departments in order to complete a roll-out of a technical solution. The project (or maybe the business) isn't big enough to warrant a project manager but it will make a difference day-to-day regardless. The users in the company may have gotten used to IM apps to get instant feedback from one another while they're sat at their desks and rely less on e-mail as a result as it seems less efficient and a greater hassle to administer. The IT team send out an e-mail to all staff asking for the info they need to complete the project. Are we going to get the info the IT team requires promptly?
Look - today's youth are used to multi-stream social communication via the Internet. Traditional methods for electronic communication (e-mail, forums or BBS, and IM) are falling out of favour while social media applications and blogging services are massively on the rise. By the time their kids are using the Internet to communicate the toolset will have changed again. The $64,000 question is: Why shouldn't we choose to use tools that the people we're communicating with are already familiar with? Surely that will solicit a greater response, regardless of the age group we're dealing with?
Reverse my example and my point still stands. If the company in my example used e-mail as a primary communication tool except the IT team (who used IM or what-have-you) the IT people would get a worse response using THEIR tool of choice than if they selected the user's tool of choice.
Yep, you don't always get what you want and we shouldn't pander to our kids' every whim but as IT people we should always pay attention to our users and serve their needs in the best way possible. Sometimes that really does mean doing things their way.
I'm sorry if this comes across as a personal attack or a litloe harsh in esponse - it isn't. I really do understand what you mean but felt the need to expand on my thoughts re: matching the user's needs. Of course, there's another layer here that I haven't gone into regarding moving technology forward (user: "but I've always used my BBS? Why should I use social media?") but I've gone on far too long already
Posted by dl_wraith
Updated - 16th May 2012
