The New Digital Divide

OK, so there's still a digital divide between rich and poor. But there's clearly an additional digital divide emerging between old and young. And boy are magazines commenting on it. In the last few weeks there have been articles in both Business Week and Fortune discussing the generation of wired, wireless, iPoding, blogging, vlogging, texting, pixing and multi-tasking workers that will be coming soon to a place of employment near you.

The Fortune article paints a somewhat scary version of Generation Y -- a group of people who are "ambitious, demanding and question everything . . . when it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list." As Bruce Tulgan of RainmakerThinking puts it "[t]his is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world."

According to Tuglan, the good news is that it will also be a highly productive workforce -- but only for those entities that can demonstrate why a 20-something with a million options (and a million great ideas) should commit to their organization. And that won't be easy, considering the fact that many of these organizations are led by people that are scared of blogs, have no idea what user generated content is, and have never been on a social network to save their life.

In many ways, the Business Week article paints an even scarier picture -- not of the members of this Generation, but of our inability to interact with them. Marketing and branding campaigns have become "leaps of faith" because the industry lacks the ability to measure what REALLY captures the fickle attention of the young, digital elite. As noted in the article "addressing this vast market of globally dispersed young people will force companies to become new kinds of multinations -- plugged into the digital grid and quick to respond to shifts in demand that begin as tremors halfway around the world."

Is your organization ready to identify new trends that begin as "tremors" halfway around the world? You're not alone. But we all better figure out how to get ready -- and fast!

Won't we run out of monikers soon?

The UK's Omnicom Group has come up with a new moniker for a group of web users out there -- the "Uploaders." Seems there's a rather influential group of people out there who actively upload videos, blog posts and the like. While they're a small percentage of the overall web population (only 8%), the report notes that if they are "engaged correctly" these uploaders will have a direct impact on brand growth and sales.

Who are these folks? According to the report: "These Uploaders also were 20% more likely to be early adopters, as well as "male, younger, better educated, and better off" than their average counterparts."

Perhaps most important for those trying to build brand and image, the report recommends ". . . targeting Uploaders before an overall marketing plan even gets implemented." Seems they like to be involved in the development of a brand -- and then are more than willing to help promote it!

More information here.

Libraries in Second Life

Check out this recent article about the American Library Association and its adventures in Second Life, the online virtual world.

According to the article "ALA will have one half of ALA/Arts Island, which will be utilized as a new method for disseminating ALA news and information. It will also be used for reaching out to new audiences, holding events, interacting with members and the public, and exploring the future of library services." The ALA island will be located near Cybrary City in the "Info Archipelago." Maybe if we had a real Cybrary CIty and Info Archipelago there wouldn't be so much global warming...

Anyway, how cool is this? I know many of us think of our local library as a dusty old place with a bunch of books -- ALA's adventures in Second Life prove that the library is moving to a whole new level (or world!). In fact, there are over 400 librarians in second life. If your local librarian can have an avatar in SecondLife, don't you feel a little behind the times if you don't?

I'm just hoping that libraries will be inspired to start charging virtual late fees as well :)