Friday, June 05, 2015

A Shared Edge

I usually leave my phone on silent. I know this means I miss calls, but I don't see that as a train smash. I have never been very good on the phone unless it was a girl I particularly liked on the other end. Skype is better because you can see facial expressions. Telepresence is ridiculously awesome. They set up meeting rooms with high definition sound and picture to give the illusion that people in other parts of the world are actually across the desk from you. Because they quality is so good, you don't even put your shouty voice on. You know that one people have when they are talking on the phone. Even in public places.


Flat screen TVs used to be a tremendous luxury and now are fairly commonplace, so I have no doubt the level of technology required for this to be in lounges around the world is not far off. It is one of the few things businesses get to have that are better than what they lay person can get. Remember when you used to go to work and marvel at the cool stuff. For the most part people now go to work and moan about the things they can't use because of IT Security. Things like DropBox or some of the collaborative work software that you can get for free scares any company that has vaguely sensitive information.

Source: Transcendent Man, HT Patrick Madden

A lot of the cool stuff comes from being able to freely share ideas. This is where businesses are at a disadvantage. Secrecy is a fairly key part of having a sustainable competitive advantage, but once we move beyond making stuff and into the more interesting collaborative world - old industrial rules start to break down. When secrecy is important, being part of a business gives you an edge. Then you get let in on some of the tricks. When bravery and authenticity are important, not creating borders that separate you from others gives you a shared edge.

We move towards the stuff that is worth sharing. The stuff that is priceless.

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