On Thu, Nov 15, 2007 at 11:11:23PM -0700, Carlos Macedo Gomes wrote: > As the world becomes more distributed and virtual good communication > skills (writing and speaking) will not decrease in importance. Maybe > I'm old school but I suspect the jargon of today will be the Valley > Speak of tomorrow. One can hope :-)
There are two parts to this that come to mind immediately. First, younger generations are growing up with the ability to be "connected" to their friends at all times. 10 years ago people were being rude by talking on their cell phones at improper times. Now they text each other almost continuously, not as a poor substitute for talking, but by preference. Second, texting full length, properly thought out messages is not practical and not nearly quick enough. Neither the technologies nor the culture are anywhere close to mature. I can easily relate to the desire to be always connected. But, being an old fart, I'm usually at my office or at home. If I were 18 and always out somewhere then a laptop and email would not work for me. My methods are superior, but depend on me having my laptop on and connected to the internet. But back to how I started this paragraph... Wireless phones have a really, really bad UI. Horrible. But they fit in a pocket and are always on and connected. For years now there's been a lot of thrashing in the market trying to converge on something workable: phones are trying to become computers and PDAs, and computers/PDAs trying to be phones. Someday, maybe within the next 5-10 years, someone will really find a sweet spot, and put a product there that has actual workable tech. When that happens, look for the next generation of products to extend the ability to communicate *well*, rather than just communicating *at* *all*. -- Darrin Chandler | Phoenix BSD User Group | MetaBUG [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://phxbug.org/ | http://metabug.org/ http://www.stilyagin.com/ | Daemons in the Desert | Global BUG Federation --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss