There have been books that have captured our imagination because they explained the point where one era dissolved or evolved into another. The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler did that in the 80s and recently, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman explained the combined forces that have allowed the world to be more connected.
Central to this connection is the world wide web, which has become a fixture in the business life of any organization. We all communicate via email, share documents across the web, which, as Friedman explains, only became a mainstay of business in the 90s.
I was at a planning conference in Texas in January 2006. Texas State Technical College had representatives there to explain some of the new technological evolutions that were coming within the next 5 to 10 years, that would create jobs that don't even exist presently. They discussed nanotechnology, its effect on medical treatments of the future, and the miniaturization of computers among other things. While their presentation amazed and scared me just a little, one of their statements has echoed in my head countless times. They stated,
"We will see the equivalent of 100 years of technological change in the next 25 years."
Don't just blow by that statement because it's huge. It explains why the web is currently undergoing an evolution within such a short-time of its becoming a main-stream tool.
What am I talking about and why does it effect you? Excellent questions.
To answer the first part: I am talking about the confluence of media that can work interactively with each other across the web to the near seamless service of the users, the growing influence of the web's "community-building" abilities, and the resulting dramatic increase in non-technical individuals (such as myself) building sites and sharing information. This is truly one of the most important historical periods in information dissemination and I would dare to compare it to the advent of the movable type.
To answer the second part: Remember the presentation I attended. You and Your Non-Profit can't afford to be on the backside of this cusp. Because of the compression of time between introduction of technologies and their wide-spread applications, staying up-to-date is essential. Again you ask why? Because the method of communicating and "building community" is evolving before our eyes. More people are turning to the web and to their peers to share new information, to develop opinion and to develop "community." Cympony, a media influence analysis firm, has multiple studies on their sites I invite you to read. The very fact that I can easily turn their name into a hyperlink to their site is an example of the ease of web use I am discussing.
I also invite you to go to Wikipedia and read about Web 2.0. Wikipedia is an example of a multi-lingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers and its users. Then start to think about your non-profit's presence on the web. Does your site invite traffic (do you get a lot of hits?) Does it have compelling content that changes often and that attracts people to check in on a daily or weekly basis? Can you start to see the potential for this type of traffic in support of your organization's mission?
Jann
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