Somewhere Technology Innovators Weep – and a CES2015 Comment
January 6, 2015
The grand show called #CES2015 is going on in Las Vegas as I mash these keys into the body and soul of my Macbook Pro. I look around the room and spy my flatscreen smart TV and then glance at my Otterbox iPhone charging case and the Silicon Power Armor 2TB drive with 60,000 photos on it. We live in a bath of technology almost every moment of every day. But some places are still untouched by the technology gods.
It might bother those gurus and first adopters at the International Consumer Electronics Show, but there are still companies making the most of their fax machine and strolling through life blissfully unaware of Webex, Skype, G+ or many aspects of social media. In fact, a whole industry – for whom I’m doing a bit of work right now – is mired in 2008.
Have you heard of real estate?
For the past couple days I’ve been taking classes toward my real estate agent license. I’m learning about contracts, mortgages, liens, metes and bounds and zoning bylaws. And I’m doing it via technology that was cutting edge around the same time Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad and The Mentalist were at the top of the charts. That’s right, I’m watching the course on DVD.
The content of the course is valuable and surprisingly up-to-date. But it’s on a series of DVDs that don’t even have chapters, time coding, hyperlinks to resources or outtakes and commentary from the director. What wormhole has this industry slipped into? We’re in the year at the end time code of Back to the Future and we’re supposed to have hoverboards and fusion reactors on our cars. And real estate courses are being given via the current equivalent of smoke signals.
As stated in the title, somewhere tech innovators are weeping. But you can’t force folks to move into the future faster than they want to. In fact, I’m taking some of the notes for this course on actual paper.
Just wanted to share. Especially as the world’s largest consumer technology trade show is happening. It’s a reminder that if something works, why not keep using it?
Your take?
