Stefan at RingNokia responded to my last post with some extensive thoughts. First I want to comment on this excerpt, then I'll add another idea at the end.

Stefan commented here on my earlier post, and both replied here and online.

Ken you've answered my question perfectly, you've proven that you just don't have the same usage habits as me and my peers. Business users may be important, but the rest of us greatly out number you. Which is why I want Nokia to get off their ass already and finish implenting Python and Apache onto their mobile phones. In 2007 we live in a world of AJAX rich sites, there should be no reason why I can't go to a website have something as rich as Outlook provided to me. Just look at Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Zimbra, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, these are full blow applications embedded into a website. I dislike the term sync, I just want to work on my data, regardless of where it is, period. I should never have to hit the sync button. I've written this rant twice, and I'll be echoing it over and over again until it happens:

• I'm convinced that thanks to Python for S60v3 my idea is possible
• My laptop is the center of my life, time for my phone to take that position

[read full post]

First and foremost, Stefan's right in his observation that he and I are in different peer groups. We have different needs. But he hits a home run with one sentence:


I can get behind that idae with no hesitation at all. I don't want to sync. I hate having to sync multiple devices to multiple devices. I do it because I've let the industry make me do it. We all have. And the first solution that elminates all need for me to sync will win my business. I don't care if it's PC or Mac. I don't care if it's Nokia or Treo. The first solution that just lets me work with my data any way I want will win. And it won't just win me. It will win big.

Stefan went on to say:

People don't want to install applications on their computer to manage their data, then install another application to sync their data, they just want to work on their data. Outlook may be proper for you, but for people like me who have moved our workflow from offline to online it's ancient technology.

I agree, but now our generational difference comes in to play. Those of us who are in the work force, and business leaders are in some ways, beyond salvage. The creativity with which we can approach our work is constrained by the tools we've accepted in the enterprise. That isn't necessarily good ro bad. It just is. To us, but to the next generation, it's viewed as bad. Actively bad.

One of the areas I study quietly on the side is the impact of technology on society. This back and forth conversation with Stefan triggered some thoughts I've been having about the net generation workforce. The tools they'll want and need, and the expectations they'll have of how an employer enables their getting work done their way.

I've asked Stefan to join me for a podcast chat where the two of us can explore these issues a bit. I'm working on a outline of topic areas and setting the stage with him now in the background. And with a bit of luck, we'll have a podcast up soon of a very different sort. Looking at mobility and how it may need to evolve for the next generation work force as my generation hands the reins of enterprise across to a group of people who use technology differently than those of us who remember party lines and black & white television.

More to follow...