Mark Evans had an interesting post yesterday that captured some of the thoughts that have been bouncing around my mind recently.
He writes:
I’m not sure whether “paradox” is the right word but for all the digital chatter happening, people are still people with a desire/need to be analog. This explains the plethora of events, conferences (mesh is as much a social as a conference) and meet-ups, as well as why many people still flying around to meetings despite the time, energy and environmental impact involved.
There should be significant pressures to conduct more business using virtual on-line tools – as simple as IM and email through to sophisticated life size video conferencing.
But there still isn’t a satisfactory digital substitute for the ability of the human mind to assimilate the analog signals that can only be transmitted and processed with face-to-face communications: the handshake, the warmth of the smile, the nervous jitter.
While there are many meetings that can (and will) be replaced by digital communications, I agree with Mark that sometimes you just have stay analog.
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