When I finished graduate school my first job was for RCA Atstro-Electronics. Our division which designed and manufactured satellites was right down the street from RCA's Sarnoff Labs. Even back in mid 80's, you could already start to see the start of the decline of those famous labs. After a few years at RCA I moved back to Minnesota and have spent the rest of my career at my present company's engineering labs.
To day that I have seen changes over the past 25 years would be a huge understatement, but the one truism I've found through all these years is one must always better learn to collaborate. These days I am focusing upon the use of social media and collaboration tools for the enterprise ... the virtual water cooler. Thus it was with great interest I read the latest cover story for Business Week. The major focus of this issue is several articles on how engineering research and development has changed, and how collaboration with folks even outside your own company is critical. Whether you find you agree or disagree with the theme of the article, you need to read this material:
Look up the Wikipedia article on the assassination of Julius Caesar. Now if you made a change to this article and were a Wikipedia Uber Editor (1,000+ edits) per month, the likelihood that your additions or edits would be challenged is very, very small (less than 1%). However, if you were anyone else you can expect to be challenged about 15% of the time. Combine these facts with the knowledge that the Wikipedia community is not growing, and what does this mean about one of the web's most popular sites? Stagnation may have arrived, and perhaps worse ... if you're not part of the "in crowd", it's hard to become a Wikipedian. If this is true, it would be a shame. c|Net has a report just published a few days ago on the status of Wikipedia. In the c|Net report it quotes from the Guardian:
The Guardian newspaper offered this plaintive quote
from a frustrated junior editor, Aaron Schwarz: "There's no place on
Wikipedia that says: 'Want to become a Wikipedia editor? Here's how you
do it.' Instead, you basically have to really become part of that
community and pick it up through osmosis and have the tradition passed
down to you."
I attended Wikimania back in 2006 and was fascinated. More importantly, I learned. I hope c|Net is wrong.
Ron ... we know you can hear us. We had good times in the old neighborhood ... trading baseball cards, playing in the 8th street woods, and at recess for the Lab School.
Earlier today the Wall Street Journal republished their editorial from the Summer of 1969 about Woodstock; it was titled "By
Squalor Possessed". The editorial from '69 starts out:
"The
so-called generation gap is not really so much a matter of age as it is a gap
between more civilized and less civilized tastes. As such, it may be more
serious, both culturally and politically, than it first appeared ..."
Obviously the Journal did not think much about my generation! (WSJ current Woodstock commentary). Some 40 years later this "uncivilized" man of 53 years (i.e. me ... the NorthtstarNerd) has seen and contributed to the revolution! Prior to Woodstock we watched Leave it to Beaver or the Andy Griffith Show (still love them!). The Monkeys and other rock groups when they first started performing in the early 60's had long hair, but wore suits and ties! Woodstock showed that the world had changed, and that change was just beginning. With the rise of the social web, we are now accelerating what started in the farm fields of upstate New York. Thus I leave you with two items and a comment to any of my generational peers ... remember Woodstock and you will better understand the current youth of the world:
1. A video which will help you relive the Summer of '69
The so-called generation gap is not really so much a matter of age as it is a gap between more civilized and less civilized tastes. As such, it may be more serious, both culturally and politically, than it first appeared.
Starting with the relatively small hippie movement several years ago, the drug-sex-rock-squalor “culture” now permeates colleges and high schools. When 300,000 or 400,000 young people, most apparently from middle-class homes, can gather at a single rock festival in New York State, it is plainly a phenomenon of considerable size and significance.
We would not want to exaggerate. Probably a goodly number will grow out of it, in the old-fashioned phrase. On campus, the anti-radicals seem to be gaining strength, and it may well be that these more conservative youngsters will be the people who will be moving America in the future.
But that prospect is by no means certain enough to encourage complacency. For various reasons it is being suggested that many rebels will not abandon their “life-styles” (the cliches in this field! ) and that there are enough of them to assume some of the levers of power in the future American society. It would be a curious America if the unwashed, more or less permanently stoned on pot or LSD, were running very many things. Even if the trend merely continues among young people in the years ahead, it will be at best a culturally poorer America and maybe a politically degenerated America.
Now taste is that amorphous quality about which one is not supposed to dispute, so we won’t argue whether rock is a debased form of music; we don’t like it, but never mind. Without pursuing that argument, it is possible, we think, to say a couple of things quite categorically about rock and related manifestations.
One is that a preference for a particular kind of music is not necessarily a matter of age. In times past many young people were drawn to classical music and retained that taste as they grew older. Today the young’s addiction to rock is at the same time a rejection of classical and the more subdued types of popular music, and considering the way rock is presented it must be counted a step down on culture’s ladder.
That is our second point: The orgiastic presentation on the part of some of the best-known groups. It is not prudish, we take it, to suggest that a certain amount of restraint is appropriate in these matters. But then, the whole “life-style” of many of the performers is incredible—disgusting or pitiful or both, but certainly hoggish.
The same applies to public sex in the audience, also in evidence at the mammoth Woodstock festival. It is not necessary to be a Puritan to say that such displays are regressive from the point of view of civilization. As for the ubiquitous drugs—well, we guess on that score we feel more sorry for the kids than anything else.
What perhaps gets us most is the infatuation with squalor, the slovenly clothes and the dirt; at Woodstock they were literally wallowing in mud. How anybody of any age can want that passes our understanding. Again, though, it’s not a question of age. A person doesn’t have to be young to be a hobo. He does, however, have to have certain tastes and values (or non-tastes and non-values) which are not generally regarded as being of a civilizing nature.
Now we are aware of all the cant about how these young people are rejecting traditional tastes and values because society has bitterly disappointed them, and we would be the last to deny the faults in contemporary society. It is nonetheless true that their anarchic approach holds no hope at all.
They won’t listen, but if they, and some of the unduly sympathetic adults around, would listen, here are some words worth bearing. They occur in a speech by Professor Lawrence Lee to a social fraternity at the University of Pittsburgh, quoted in National Review:
“You have been told, and you have come to believe, that you are the brightest of generations . . . You are, rather, one of the most self-centered, self-pitying, confused generations . . . .
“The generation gap is one of the delusions of your generation—and to some men of my generation. . . . The only generation gap is that we have lived longer, we know more than you do from having lived, and we are so far ahead of you that it will take you a lifetime to have the same relative knowledge and wisdom. You had better learn from us while you can. . . .
“It is not mawkish to love one’s country. The country, with all of its agony and all of its faults, is still the most generous and the most open society on the earth. . . . All generations need the help of all others. Ours is asking yours to be men rather than children, before some frightened tyrant with the aid of other frightened and ignorant men seeks to make all of us slaves in reaction to your irresponsibility.”
In any event, opting for physical, intellectual and cultural squalor seems an odd way to advance civilization.
Earlier today, I had the good fortune to attend Blogwell sponsored by Gaspedal. This conference is moving around the USA and working upon helping one better understand social media usage as practiced by large corporations. In the true spirit of non disclosure you need to know that one of the presenters (Heather Oldani from McDonalds) gave me a free coupon for their new Angus Burger. Thus, if this blog post were about McDonalds, it might be considered a paid advertisement (as if $3.99 for a bacon cheeseburger could buy my good will). However, other that to note McDonalds is doing some good work in the social media world, I choose to focus upon Ford Motor Company and Scott Monty. Alas, Scott has not offered me even a free oil change ... let alone a rebate. Before I give my impressions of Scott's presentation, you need to understand that he is not your normal auto executive ... whatever that is. Scott about broke my hand with his handshake when I met him before the event, and then proceeded on stage wearing a cream colored suit, beige saddle shoes, and a silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. In short, Scott was not what I expect out of an old line Detroit manufacturer ... albeit the only one to avoid bankruptcy.
Mr. Monty is Ford's social media department of one ... soon to be two on Monday. However, if a stoic old line manufacturer wanted to convince me they were doing things differently, he is a great start. Now if would be great to just eliminate Scott as an anomaly at Ford, but he actually showed us a YouTube video of their CEO, Allan Mulally, using Twitter. This made me think, something was up with Ford, and they really want to engage with their customer. See below ... the video is less than 4 minutes long ... and the video is not your normal CEO interview by any means:
At some time in the near future you will be able to watch Scott Monty's presentation (the video) via the BlogWell site. However, in the interim you can view his slides on Slideshare.Net ... Zero to 60, Ford's Social Media Story
Okay ... I work for a large industrial company ... and if it isn't obvious, I was impressed with Scott and and his story. After his presentation I asked him about Ford's plans to open blogging and social media sites to Ford's engineering work force. As Scott states, Ford wants to let the nerds and geeks communicate directly with the customer. This sounds great, so I am now challenging Scott Monty to comment about his company's plans in this area, and then come back and re-comment with a url when the Ford engineers come online. That will be cool!
