Top Time Tip #104
Who Says We Have To Keep Doing Things The Same Way? (Part II)
17th June 2008
Hello there
In my last Top Time Tip I shared two exciting innovative experiences – a video/phone conference speech, and Thomas Friedman’s terrific book ‘The World is Flat’.
Today let’s look at two other ‘tickle the thinking’ items I’ve just been exposed to.
Holographic speakers
A couple of weeks ago I got an excited email from Russell Holland of http://www.e-c.co.nz.
‘Got to share this’ shouted the header.
At http://www.musion.co.uk/Cisco_TelePresence.html you’ll see the world’s first live holographic video feed keynote speech, held very recently. Maybe this is the beginning of the answer for speakers like me who currently have to spend large chunks of time on planes in order to do our work! (And that’s not even starting on carbon-friendly considerations!)
Viewers and audience could see three speakers on the stage, and the three men could see and talk to each other. However, they couldn’t all touch – two were in California, the other was in Bangalore, India! (Shades of Matrix, Dr Who, or Timeline!) I sat there with my mouth open! The future opportunities for business and the environment are HUGE.
I guess the technology is really expensive right now, but watch out – one day it won’t be. And then think of the consequences for many industries, including conferences, event centres, hospitality, transport, ….. – some very damaging to current businesses, and some creating new worlds of possibilities most of us can’t even imagine. Mind you, I can’t think that it will ever replace the value of networking and direct connection that comes from being physically in one place with a bunch of likeminded people, but …. maybe I’m wrong??
Goodbye Gutenberg
The other item of excitement is a book. If you’re interested in the changing trends of reading, education and book publishing, check out Valerie Kirschenbaum’s ‘Goodbye Gutenberg'. Valerie was a young teacher in a tough inner city New York school. She kept noticing that her troubled students responded better to anything written, including books, if a variety of images, fonts and colour were included. Black and white text and books, the traditional kind of books we’ve all grown up with, were boring for them and they wouldn’t or couldn’t learn.
A very hard-nosed person could say, ‘Well, they’re difficult children, and they have to learn our way or accept that they’re not going to make it.’ Fortunately for us, Valerie didn’t take that approach. She was concerned about her students – and that concern shifted her horizons. She started to notice the learning environment we live in and what other visionary educators and book producers were saying and doing.
We’re surrounded by a world of image, movement and colour via the ever-changing world of multi-media. Nature is the same. Modern digital printing methods have opened up a whole new world of opportunity for books. With software like Adobe, Corel and PageMaker we can manipulate images, change and create fonts, and create amazing graphic effects. We can produce colour right from the printers on our desks. And commercial colour printing has become much less expensive. Gone are the days when coloured books were hugely expensive. So – why are we still producing books and information with little or no visual excitement? Why are so many books still the same shape, black text on white paper, no colour throughout the pages, old-style fonts expressing no emotion?
This book highlights the beginning of a change in publishing as significant as Gutenberg’s invention of mechanical printing presses around 1439. It’s a feast for the eyes and the imagination. 'Designer writing' is the phrase Valerie’s coined. If you have anything at all to do with reading, education, writing, publishing – or you produce company publications - you can’t afford NOT to read this book. I initially got it from my local library, but we’re now eagerly awaiting delivery of our own copy. It’s a gem. [Jill, link to Amazon if you can.]
So – here’s my own personal challenge for this week – and you might like to join me:
I’m off to go exploring on how we can ramp up the look of our written materials, whilst still getting business done and satisfying our regular clients. I know it will take a while to transition some or all of our written materials and there’s lots of study to do, but I’m a woman on a mission!
What about you? I’d love to get your feedback on any simple ways you find to excite our bland and ordinary day-to-day written work.
Yours in exploring new horizons.
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