Posted: November 29th, 2007 by Alison Ruth

Categorised as:  NewTech  OldTech 

Apparently, Doug Morris (truck driver and CEO for Universal music) drove his large truck (the music industry) under a very small bridge (technology, aka the internet).  One would think that being in business is about anticipating what is around the corner or down the street.  But no, there are some things in this world that you cannot anticipate.  Change in technology should not be one of them.

I've been reading an awful lot about how business cannot adjust to changing technology.  There was the Sony Betamax issue which lead to a revolution in time shifting content.  But then there was the Sony Rootkit debacle in which Sony generously infected your computer with the latest phone home device while simultaneously opening up your hard drive to anyone with a clue.

Now, we have Universal music bemoaning that if Coca Cola came out of your tap, you wouldn't buy it.  Seems to me that there's a flaw in that argument (and others used in the debate) which have been pointed out all over the place.

So, here we are, at a crossroads.  We have technology barreling along, going where it's going ... to places more ubiquitous, more embedded and more useful (maybe).  Meanwhile, we have people approaching the crossroads with nary a thought for what else might be on the road.

While I'm not one for labels (who am I kidding?), I'm seeing very similar characteristics in the 68 year old Doug Morris and some (not all but some) of the student who hit my first year course (Business Informatics).  They seem to sit in class, never worrying about the big truck bearing down on them.  So while these Gen-Y (there's the label) people seem to think they are the most savvy of all generations when it comes to technology, I'm not convinced.  Yes, they are skilled, but savvy?

I've just been reading over the course evaluations from these students and they seem to fall into two distinct categories.  One group see the course as having immense relevance to their futures.  The other group think the course was a waste of time, money and effort.  The first group know there is a truck on the road.  The second group don't even care to look.

This latter group I'm renaming the E-Gen.  Not that that's related to anything in the way e-learning is.  No, E stands for Entertainment.  Apparently (and this was one of the most frequent criticisms of the course), the lectures weren't entertaining.  To these students, all I can say is ... beware of trucks.

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