The #Communication Revolution
Channel: innovativepd
Date: 2014-05-14

As a former U.S. History teacher I often talked about the industrial revolution and its impact on society.  Today, in developed countries, the industrial revolution has long since passed.  Next up: The communication revolution.

Thomas Friedman's book, The Earth Is Flat, was a starting point for explaining how the ability to communicate with nearly anybody in the world is changing how we live. Seth Godin talks about the end of the TV-Industrial complex, where in the past we were reliant on a few communication networks (ABC, PBS, CBS, NBC in the USA) for our information.

Today, of course, nearly anybody can create a video, broadcast that video and share an idea or viewpoint. This class you are taking right now is an example of the communication revolution at work.

So what?  How does that change anything?  In many ways, it changes everything!  Ideas (for better or worse) spread without limits. Blogs, photo, video, and audio services allow all of us to communicate on a scale like never before. However, and this is the painful part sometimes, just because we all have a huge broadcast device, it does no mean anybody wants to listen to us.  We can't just interrupt people with ads like the TV-Industrial complex did in the old days.  We have to earn people's trust and that can be tough!