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I didn’t win Powerball last night, so I suppose it’s back to work.
Three things I’ve noticed recently, which of course always indicates a trend.
- Within the editorial group at our company, there’s a big effort to try to move beyond email in terms of our communication and collaboration. We’re taking small steps, for sure, but we’ve integrated Slack into our workflow. That’s a huge step for a lot of us. Kicking and screaming along the way, but still a positive step.
- The next big move, of course, would be to integrate some kind of videoconferencing system or service into the mix – and it should be a bit easier as we’ve noticed a big trend of those companies moving to the cloud. Witness today’s news from Lifesize, which announced it was spinning off from parent company Logitech to focus on its videoconferencing cloud service. It’s pretty easy to figure out why the shift is happening – on-premise equipment for large-scale videoconferencing (think of those huge telepresence systems that sit in the board room at your office) is expensive, and keeping everything connected on the back-end was (is?) an IT nightmare. If any market is built for the cloud, it’s videoconferencing. With the spinoff, Lifesize now gets to focus its energies on providing service for business customers without having to answer to a mainly consumer-based hardware company. More importantly, it gets to compete in the cloud-services market, which is expected to grow immensely.
- My kids (all under age 10) are communicating with their friends via two mobile methods – they’re using FaceTime for instant communication, and if they’re not around, they’re using text messaging and a LOT of emojis. I’m not sure whether they are using the emojis to actually say something, or if they just like having fun sending each other the “poo” emoji (I’m pretty sure that’s why my son uses it). They are not using email, they’re not using the family computer (at this point, they only use the computer to play web-based games when their tablet/iPod batteries are dead).
Now, take these three bullet points and mash them all together. Older generations moving towards cloud-based collaboration tools. A young generation that communicates via video and uses mobile devices primarily. A company focusing on providing cloud-based video services.
Conclusion: We are so close to the video phone revolution, and it only took 50 to 60 years to reach. Whoooo!
Now I just need to remember to stop rolling my eyes at the person on the other end of the audio call.
