by Manak Ahluwalia, CTO
Developing technology roadmaps require using primary and secondary market data, evaluating trends, and getting feedback from my business partners, peers, and customers. However the vetting of the technology and the user experience is something I have the liberty of being able to gain insight through my children.
Now, my children are young. Young enough to never know what a busy signal on a phone is; lacking the concept of a TV commercial as most of their content is delivered on demand or via Netflix; and believing the primary mechanism for interface to technology is a touch screen.
Professionally, I see a lot of technology bias based on your generation and role in your organization. Some prefer a phone call, others text messaging, a few prefer video. However, what is consistent is that most like to pick and choose based on who they are talking to, where they are, and what device is handy.
My children don't have these biases. They are too young to type and are not engaged enough to stay on a phone call. They want video. By the time they are old enough to type or grasp the concept of voice it will be too late. Video will be their primary mechanism of consuming technology and communicating. This effect will change the tools that companies need to have in place to get the most productivity out of their new workforce. It will also create a wave of adoption for the most technology biased or "old school" leaders in your organization. As a child I wrote snail mail to my grandfather in India. Today my grandfather in his eighties communicates with his great grandchildren through a webcam.
Video is becoming a major tool in our professional lives. The question that arose for me is if the technology has come far enough for my daughter, who just turned 3, to be able to benefit from the experience and not be distracted by the technology.
We decided to put it to a test. With the help of Cisco, we setup a telepresence session between my daughter and Chris Jennings of Cisco to conduct a session between the Iselin, NJ and Boxboro, MA offices. We decided to use the single screen experience as it would most closely mirror the type of experience I expect my children to have in our household in the near future.
We broke this social experiment into a couple of use cases. First, would a young child be able to grasp the concept of a social interaction through a screen with an individual 300 miles away. Once we got past the initial bashfulness we were able to witness the experience evolve. We were able to capture some of the magic of the experience and how this will shape our children’s lives.
My daughter and Chris were able to have conversations as if they were standing next to each other. She showed him her arts and crafts she had recently made, her new umbrella, and a new trick she had learned from her cousin on how to put on her jacket.
She ate her grapes while he ate his apple. Sort of a virtual picnic.
Chris then gave my daughter a drawing lesson and the two were able to draw pictures together.
I was pleasantly surprised by the level of interaction between the two of them. It's easy to see how these technologies still in a degree of infancy will be able to break down cultural barriers and geographic distances. Provide the mobile parent with poor work/life balance to step out for 10 minutes and enjoy the school recital, join dinner remotely, and watch their infants sleep. Allow my children to be tutored in French by someone in France, having international video pals instead of pen pals, and attend classes from the living room.
My next experiment is aligning our executive management team to the iPad2 and Cius for video and data collaboration. Amazing when the experience of a 3 year old can help justify transformation at the top ranks in your organization. Welcome to the new world.
Watch the Virtual Play Date on YouTube and read Alliant’s press release on becoming a Cisco Certified Telepresence Express Advanced Technology Partner.
