business networking has profound effects on the enterprise, people often think of social networking as being 'myspace' because they are in the business of being in the media all the time. A San Francisco company called NetModular Community has provided social networking for business since 2001 and almost all of the sites they create are for networking and business needs. Sure, younger audiences take to it faster and with more zeal, but today, all ages need to be aware of social networking it is just fundamental.

Did you intentionally sequence this post right after your previous one about future programmers thinking in parallel algorithms, unlike us "linear programmers" of the "current generation," as you called us? I'm curious about your thoughts on this connection. Are the DNs actually better prepared to design parallel algorithms than DIs?

To Alan --
No, I did not intentionally sequence my last two blogs. If I did that it would sort of be parallel processing on my part wouldn't it?

Anyway, in answer to your insightful question, are digital natives beter prepared to write parallel processing-enabled programs, I don't know.

I think you first need to define the skill set that allows someone to program for multi-threading processing.

Ephraim
Editor-at-Large
InfoWorld

You said: "Obviously, any evolutionary changes in humanity, negative or positive, would take a bit longer than the approximately 25 years since the birth of the PC age."

Actually that's not true. Our *culture* evolves much more swiftly than that and, in fact, that's why our young have such long childhoods -- to allow us to impart/alter the cultural capital we have. 25 years is about spot on for a whole new generation to grow up with different ideas and ideals.

Equally, given the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" it's arguable that those who graze on pictures are using their time better than thousand who troll through the written word.

Todd McCaffrey

I'm not going to debate whether DNs will make better citizens (although I will point out that there's plenty of evidence that it's harder to market to DNs than DIs.)

My point is that DNs already have brought social tools into the enterprise.

Visible Path has over 1500 companies using its product -- see TechCrunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/12/visualpath-a-lot-like-linkedin-except-its-useful/ -- and is just releasing a new version of its corporate network product. I know Facebook is working directly with large enterprises. (The applications are different: Visible Path is more of a social network search tool, and Facebook is more of a corporate directory.) And, of course, just about every company has people surreptitiously using LinkedIn to find new jobs, while thousands of employess are Twittering to each other. All count as social networking in the enterprise... even if the usage hasn't hit the radar or the DIs in corporate management.

I believe this evolution is already well on its way because it's generational. Just look at how the newest information workers choose to work and look at the tools they choose to use. They drive multi-tasking to an entirely new level using multiple IM chat sessions, collaborative workspaces and feed subscriptions that deliver the information they need as soon as it is available.

They bring a new work ethic based on continuous partial attention that can increase productivity because they can keep multiple dimensions of their tasks in their peripheral vision and in their peripheral attention simultaneously. When these techniques are used to optimum advantage, opportunities are spotted more quickly, rapid responses seize the opportunity and the power of collaboration is brought to bear on problem solving.

When attention tools, like Attensa's AttentionStream, are added to this mix, the power of intelligent prioritization, automatic discovery and sharing of critical business information has the potential to bring a new level of productivity into play.

Somewhat related to this, I heard an interesting discussion over the weekend. A friend was describing that for her son to get the Golf badge from Boy Scouts, he had to read a book on the history of golf, and he isn't interested. She remarked though if someone made a video of the text on YouTube, he'd watch and learn it. That launched a discussion on the exercise as more than just learning about golf -- it also teaches him how to get information and learn from text. My wife contributed the idea that that's actually more consistent with how we originally learned; it was through oral explanation or watching a presentation that we learned before books were commonplace. I wish I could remember the term she used, but realize there's an extra step in translating idea to words to paper. And this ties to a WSJ article we read about Grandmas using YouTube to record their recipes and other Seniors using it to pass on techniques and memories to younger generations.

Sometimes I think we get a little focused on the web as if nothing else existed before it ... in this case I don't think Digital Natives are responsible to this movement towards visual sexiness as the way to grab eyeballs. Rather this change started years, if not decades ago, with the printed media as a reflection of what was already happening in TV/Movies/Music industries. For ages it has been about attracting "eyeball clicks" at the cost of quality communications.

I believe you have overlooked cooperative analysis mechanisms:

Assuming you have friends you understand (and trust enough for honesty), some "deep analysis" can come through discussion or other mutual interactions.

Put differently, your reaction to people having browsing as a preference has some of those superficial characteristics that were scaring you.

Not that web networks are nothing but dethorned roses, of course.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." get overused.

Yes, it might take a thousand words to describe a picture, but how many pictures will it take to describe a text? As a hint, think movie.

Re: Scott Niesen -- I think Scott has coined a new term that aptly describes the digital age.
"Continuous, partial attention."
What the repercussions of that are I'm not sure.

Ephraim Schwartz
Editor-at-large
InfoWorld

Can't help wonder how all these folks will cope when the electric grid goes down. Will U-Tube come to the rescue? We seem to be developing a generation with a distaste for reading and that's scary. Most of the world's information is in print.

I am reminded that in the fifties that educators were bemoaning the fact kids were reading comic books instead of novels. Seems to me it's the same principle in action. The printed word is a relatively recent addition to the human society. Man is a image oriented creature first, and a symbol manipulating creature second. That's the idea behind the Graphic Users Interface. A lot of computer users don't know what a command line is. Do I need to remind you there are people working on direct neural linkages to computers? Can you even imagine how people will be working with knowledge in the next twenty five years. (Assuming global warming hasn't dumped us back in another dark age.)

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