Connect - share - collaborate - create (part 1)

The weekend before Easter, the extended Abood clan gathered for a family picnic. It had been some years since we had done this. It is easy today to lose track of friends and family as the months roll by and you get caught up in your day-to-day existence.

Most of my family and relatives now have a Facebook page. We are once again interacting with each other on an almost daily basis albeit online. This is what led to the picnic gathering.

Online social applications such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have allowed us to reconnect with families and friends. I now know what they are up to.

Teenagers today will lookup their timeline on twitter, see what their friends are up to and decide if they want to join in. If they see two of their friends going to see a movie that they like, they will turn up to join them as well as others who have decided to join them as well.

In the next decade, online social applications will be used more and more as we seek to keep in contact with friends and families. It will also become more important in our ability to find and connect with like-minded people that we would never have had the opportunity to meet before. Whether these people share your passion for all things Doctor Who, have similar political beliefs or share a similar professional background, you will be connecting with more people than ever before.

Contrary to Isaac Asimov predictive story, we will be engaging with people more than ever.

There are those who have argued that today’s generation, who spend a lot of time interacting online, are not learning social graces. However, I believe in the next ten years we will return to the small village atmosphere. In the small village, everyone knew everyone and what they were up to. In small villages you have to behave or everyone will find out about your transgressions. Now, with the “here I am” and “this is what I am doing” nature of online social applications we need to be wary of what we say or do, for everyone will know everyone and what they are up to.

It was Obama who used this medium to great effect. He got his supporters talking to potential supporters. He was able to get his message out quickly and mobilise his supporters. He even mobilised teenagers of non-voting age. These teenagers would then go and talk to their grandparents about why they should vote for Obama. These non-voting age supporters will be of voting age in 2012.

So clear your calendars, you will be engaging much more.

School’s in for summer

Currently, there are as many honour students in India as there are students in the USA. Who will teach all the future generations of Indian children?

In 1952, India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru presented the first five-year plan: India has been producing five-year plans ever since. In the early 80s, the national plan focused on becoming an information and communication technology (ICT) powerhouse. They picked the outsourcing trend early and now run the ICT departments of many companies worldwide. The India nation has benefited greatly from these five-year plans.

Australia has no such long-term plans.