Desktop Applications

Students should know the basics of applications like Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. While there are other options out there, like some of the collaborative apps that Google offers, the MS Office applications are still the most popular. In many companies they don’t even ask about desktop applications knowledge anymore, proficiency is assumed.

Internet Browsing

I know that it is second nature to those of us that work online for a living, however, there are still a lot of students that cannot find their way around the Internet. Being able to search for ideas and answers online is not only a great skill to have, but a way to be a more efficient and productive employee. What are the basics of searching, bookmarking, sharing (del.i.cio.us, Digg)? Do students know why and how to source and acknowledge materials they find and use?

Social Networking

This one can get tricky. I know many High School students that already have profiles on MySpace and/or Facebook to connect with their friends. The education that students need around use of these type of tools is less about “how you do it” and more about privacy. Students need to be aware that recruiters (professional and college) will review any online profiles or information on applicants; a recent CIO Insight poll found that 45% of hiring managers use social networking sites to research candidates. Students need to assume that every post, picture and tag associated with them can be found. Awareness may be growing: Recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that 60% of adults and 66% of teens restrict access to their personal profiles on online. While restricting access to profiles is one security measure, students should also be aware of what anyone in their ecosystem is saying or tagging about them. We’ve already seen stories of individuals loosing out on opportunities because of inappropriate photos their friends posted and tagged online.

Written Communication

As social media tools evolve and we see more options arise, the written word becomes more and more important. This means that language skills, especially written skills, need to be stressed. It does not matter how brilliant you are, if your memos or posts have major spelling and grammar issues, those will greatly detract from good content. I know that there is a new vernacular that goes along with many of the new technologies; however the majority of the workforce is still made up of professionals who rely on standard English for business interaction.

Mobile Applications

Yes, many students have cell phones and know how to text but do they know how to use email online? Do they know NOT to use Twitter and IM acronyms, slang and shorthand when talking professionally? This is another area where protocol needs to be addressed.

So, what technology skills do you look for in an intern or a new hire? If you were talking to a group of High School students what advice would you give them regarding learning and using technology? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and will keep you posted on feedback I get from the MACC group and the student population that they serve.

Radio: Teenagers do not listen to traditional radio because they are able to listen to online streaming music that is advertisement free and enables them to choose which songs they want to hear.

TV: Most teenagers still watch television but the consumption varies seasonally with popular programs (i.e. Teenage boys watch more TV when it’s football (soccer) season). Advertisements are a turnoff so many turn to internet channels to watch ad free programming. It’s getting harder for youth to find the time in their busy schedules to watch TV.

Newspapers: “No teenager I know of regularly reads a paper.” Most are reluctant to pay for a newspaper and when they do, prefer those that are compact for easy reading on the go.

Gaming: Girl gamers are becoming more numerous. Consoles that enable chat via internet are popular and negatively impact phone usage. PC gaming has no place in the market as it can be downloaded for free.

Internet: Most teenagers engage heavily in social networking. “Teenagers do not use Twitter”

Music: Teenagers listen to a lot of music but are very reluctant to pay for it. Most do not listen exclusively to music but rather do so while multitasking

Mobile phone: 99% of teenagers have a cell phone, and upgrade it every 2 years.

These revelations are not groundbreaking and if you are familiar with our research or Don’s books (Growing Up Digital and Grown Up Digital), you would find uncanny similarities between Matthew’s anecdotal findings and our 8 Norms of the Net Generation.

However, what IS surprising are the reactions that this paper is getting from the business community. Edward Hill-Wood, Matthew’s supervisor, claims that dozens and dozens of fund managers and CEOs have been e-mailing and calling all day. Others cite that this report has generated 5 to 6 times more feedback than the average Morgan Stanley research report. This goes on to show really how large the generation gap is between baby boomers and today’s digital natives. It seems that the impact of an internet savvy generation can no longer be ignored as executives turn their undivided attention towards understanding the Net Gen.

But before taking Matthew’s views for granted, I’d like to point out a few areas of caution. First, the findings are not supported statistically but rather represent solely the views of Matthew and his friends. Secondly, it’s important to take into account the context in which this research was conducted. Matthew is from London, England and being a 15 year old intern at a bank, must come from a solid educational background. In other words, his views may not be indicative of other teenagers… Net Geners in Japan certainly update their phones more frequently than once every two years and I for one do use Twitter as well as read newspapers on a regular basis…

Here are some quotes from professors in the article:

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark…Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C…That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

“Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “

Quotes from students:

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade…What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?…If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”

“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced a similar disconnect in the workplace?

We’ve all heard about how technology, namely the internet, is ruining lives in a number of different ways. Personally, instead of resisting and complaining about the fact that we live in a “plugged-in world,” I’m more interested in how digital interconnectedness can directly improve quality of life. One field that is important to quality of life that could benefit from embracing innovation is mental health counselling.

Traditionally, mental health counselling is delivered behind the closed doors of health care institutions and the private offices of the professional delivering the treatment. This represents a significant barrier to care that is particularly relevant to NetGeners, who can be reluctant to access traditional, face-to-face counselling (particularly in instances of social phobia or agoraphobia). 

In this article, I learned that psychologists seem to be picking-up on the need to make changes to the traditional model of counselling in order to provide more help to more people. What exactly are they suggesting be used as a tool in counselling NetGeners? Social networking sites, namely Facebook.

Online counselling (or e-counselling), is not entirely new. (The Wikinomics Playbook [p. 31] actually discusses how wikinomics principles can be applied to mental health treatment). However, more engaging e-counselling models are foreign to many mental health professionals, particularly for use with NetGeners (although check out this grief-counselling site for teens).

It is promising to learn of mental health professionals who are “reaching out” by adopting new modes of engagement in order to meet the needs of NetGeners. The full potential of social networking sites as counselling tools has obviously not yet been realized. However, to provide the highest level of care to the greatest number of people it will be necessary for health care providers to tap-into these channels.

The big issue on everyone’s mind is how Wikinomics, the Web 2.0 and the Net Generation combined can enable Colombia to leapfrog in economic and social development.

Arriving on Tuesday night, I had dinner with the board of the Fundación Saldarriaga Concha. These were all very thoughtful business leaders who spend enormous amounts of time attempting to do well by doing good in Colombia. The main focus of the foundation is the elderly and also disabled in Colombia — two groups that woefully lack services and rights.

7 am the next morning was one of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had in a long time — a small breakfast with 15 of the top movers and shakers of the new web in Colombia as it’s applied to social development and justice. These young folks were as sophisticated as any I’ve met anywhere. Some were implementing social networks (using open source software) in civil society and government in Colombia. Others were consulting foundations and businesses who want to support social investment. Others were using the web to organize movements for social change. They had a list of ten thoughtful questions prepared for me — we got through two of them.

An example was a lad named Felipe Arango from BSD Consulting, BSD standing for Business, Sustainability and Development. They have been working on models of stakeholder assurance (AA1000s) for sustainability reports for some years now and acted as consultants for some of the main banks in the Latin American Region on integrating sustainability into their strategies and transparent communications. They are also currently developing sustainability ratings for investments in Latin America, including financial market indexes. After the meeting he expressed interest in exploring collaboration possibilities with nGenera on how to blend the wikinomics model with stakeholder based assurance, stakeholder engagement and transparency through GRI reporting.

BSD is also developing a project with the Fairtrade movement, one of the most powerful ideas yet for sustainable development, based on using the wikinomics model to promote self-organization and collaboration amongst 3rd world rural producers and conscious consumers.

After that I was interviewed one on one by several leading journalists in Colombia and then headed to the ball room to give my keynote speech.

The room was packed — overflowing actually and I received a sustained, emotional response to my talk. As I was being introduced I chatted with Colombia’s First Lady – Lina Moreno — who had come to hear my talk. She told me that her husband President Álvaro Uribe Vélez had hoped to attend and wanted to follow up to discuss our work on Government 2.0. President Uribe has been holding town hall meetings in locations across Colombia every Saturday for months. I’m thinking he’s a prefect candidate for a digital brainstorm. Why couldn’t Colombia be the first developing country to hold a three day discussion about an important topic on the Internet?

After my talk I participated in a fascinating panel on the topic of Social Investment in Colombia: New strategies for new challenges. On the panel were Soraya Montoya- Saldarriaga Concha Foundation, Javier Jaramillo – Inversiones Mundial, Luís Gallo- Sharing with Colombia, Samuel Azout- Carulla Foundation, and Mauricio Rodríguez- Dean CESA.

Ironically, on the way to the airport we were delayed by a student demonstration that had blocked traffic. Young people are organizing in Colombia to bring about real change. You may remember the famous protests by youth against guerilla kidnappings that were organized earlier this year on facebook. Thousands of students and other youth came into the streets in one of the biggest demonstrations in the country’s history. If I’d missed my flight (a close call), somehow it would have been ok.

Viva Facebook. Viva the Net Generation

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It seems that a quick way to get the public talking about much needed educational reform may be as simple as pushing back the time of the morning bell.

This week, Toronto’s English language public school board, the TDSB, announced that at least one local high school, Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute, will be starting classes later than ever next September – 10 am – in order to better accommodate students’ learning patterns, biological development and evolving lifestyle demands (such as part-time evening employment).  As you can imagine, the announcement has been met with vocal reaction - both for and against - but one of the most unfortunate side effects to come from the decision has been the amount of generational bias and “in my day” attitude that seems to have emerged against Net Generation students. 

A few choice comments left on The Toronto Star‘s (one of Canada’s largest newspapers) article follow below:

When the cart drives the horse

Why just start classes at 10:00 to accomodate the teenagers? We should adopt other accomodations: teach Facebook instead of Math, play Warcraft instead of studying literature and teach “chilling” instead of Science? Now, seriously, the teenagers have their world and their fun stuff but it is the education system who should teach them values, not the other way around. – petrache

 Discipline is the Difference

I have probably seen 10,000 CV’s, 2.000 interviews and hired 800 people in my career. I have absolutely no time for applicants who demonstrate a lack of discipline. In fact, I seek out evidence of poor self discipline. Most of the employers I know do the same thing. Eastern Commerce is certainly on my DNH (Do Not Hire) list! – Herschell Hollywood

 Work to be done

The work should be done when it is required, not when you feel like working. Due to a deadline of monday, I will be working until the work is done. I do not particularly want to work right now and it is not my optimal work time, but I will work to meet my deadline. This was required when I went to high school, college and university and served me well in the first few years after school when my company (a tech startup in the 90s) loaded me with more work than I could really handle. Deadlines were set and many times my work day started at 7 am, ended at 2am and it was not uncommon for the office to be full in the middle of a Saturday night. My wife (working today) had similar experiences both earlier in her career and now and would tell you (as HR) that informing your manager that it is inconvenient to start early will not get you ahead. This is one reason that I resent so many people who complain about the wealthy.  – Expat in the USA

While I don’t propose to be an expert on adolescent mental health and development, based on my personal experience and nGenera’s research on the Net Generation in the workforce and next generation education delivery, I think it may be time for more Boards to investigate alternative learning strategies, such as the one proposed for Eastern C.I..  A number already have a similar late start system in place and I am encouraged by the Toronto Board’s willingness to experiment with the standard 9am – 3pm day. 

Is 10am – 4pm definitely the right answer?  Likely not, but it presents students with another option, and those who choose to embrace the offering will hopefully be the ones who need it the most – not to surf Facebook for an extra hour in the evening, or to stay up later playing WOW as many opponents fear will happen, but rather to work their part-time job, or even simply to get that extra hour of sleep that so many of us, young and old, crave. (Let alone the benefits that can come from adept Internet usage or the skills that can be gained from MMORPG)

Are we failing our next generation by allowing for a later start, when so many of us have already been at work for number of hours?  Does this mean we’re pushing back “adulthood” and the need to just get used to early morning starts?  Maybe “adulthood” as defined by just learning to deal with it is being delayed - but is that such a bad thing?  Nobody has proposed shorter days, just ones that are rearranged to harness students’ proposed maximum potential. 

I guess only time will tell the merits of the late start for Eastern C.I., but one thing is for sure – having all classes start at 9 am or earlier simply because that’s the way it’s always been done, doesn’t make sense -particularly to the Net Generation, known for their scrutiny of information and who will enter a workforce that features increasingly flexible work arrangements.  I imagine the flexible work day faced similar criticism when it was first proposed, but that seems to be working out just fine (read: one of the fastest growing and most sought after employment trends) for many.

I think Herschell Hollywood might miss out on some top talent with such a brazen attitude, but hey, with 000s of resumes still to go, I’m sure he’ll be fine…unless he ever needs to hire one of those undisciplined Net Geners.

Perhaps troubling to employers is the extent to which the Net Generation says they use work technologies to complete non-work tasks . Half (50%) say they do so for two hours a day or more.

From one point of view, using work technologies for personal tasks is a distraction; from another point of view, it’s a way to enable employees to integrate their professional and personal lives and accomplish more in both. The study found that the youth generation is slightly more likely to integrate, rather than compartmentalize, their work and personal lives.

Perhaps, we should have asked the question differently and asked how many used it 2-4 hours per day, 4-8 and 8 or more….

It was created by a young, talented kid who lives in Japan called Adrian, aka kidguru. With a straightforward, easy to understand video, kidguru very articulately explained how someone looking to connect their laptop to a tv would go about doing it. Going to his YouTube channel I discovered that he’s been doing this for almost a year now and has turned his site Tech-World into a blogging, vlogging, podcasting, twitter site/community. He’s managed to turn a hobby into a paying job, with sponsors and understands the value of creating community around his videos. He does product and app reviews, and tutorials among other educational things.
KidGuru’s YouTube channel now has over 1,500 subscribers and over 47,000 channel views, and he is now an official YouTube partner. The YouTube partner program is an ad revenue sharing program to reward users that frequently post original content and who have a steady following of thousands of viewers.

If you have any tech related questions I suggest checking out Kidguru’s channel or sending him an e-mail!

If you go to the YouTube partner sites you’ll see all the different YouTube partner channels, the vast majority of which are Net Gen (Net Generation – The children of the baby boom; the generation that has grown up with the Internet) using YouTube to express their creativity and build a community around something they love. Some great examples are KevJumba (#6 most subscribed of all time with over 285,000 subscribers and close to 9 million channel views); HappySlip ( #11 most subscribed of all time with over 205,000 subscribers and close to 7million channel views); and VenetianPrincess (# 17 most subscribed of all time with 153,000 subscribers and almost 2.5 million channel views).

These aren’t small numbers, they are reaching a huge number of people and are influential in their own way. The best part is that from what I can tell, they’re not doing it for any particular reason other than to have fun doing something they love and sharing it with the world. Literally. If they can make money at the same time, that’s even better.

Web 2.0 and the tools made available have changed the face of American politics. Not only are campaigns finding new ways to reach out to citizens, they’re also finding ways to engage them to become active participants and volunteers. Some people may argue that the ‘old people’ (so to speak), are the ones that vote; but for this election, Obama has mobilized the largest demographic – the children of the baby boom. And coincidentally, many of them are now coming of age and have the power to make a difference. The numbers speak for themselves. As Don Tapscott wrote in a previous post – During the Iowa preliminary, Obama had won by a landslide in millennial votes. His 28,000 vs. Clinton’s 5,400 and Edwards’ 6,900.

Web operations can no longer be in the corner of political campaigns, rather it now plays an important role at the center. However, where there is opportunity there is also danger. Sites like stop-him-now.com are everywhere, feeding into the misconceptions surrounding a candidate like Obama. According to a Pew Internet survey, 12% of Americans believe that Obama is Muslim – while he is, in fact – Christian . Obama’s website has a full page dedicated to “fight the smears” – calling on his supporters to help spread the word behind the misconceptions.

With political commentaries and videos (on air and on YouTube) it’s amazing the rate at which these stories can spread and make an impact – either positive or negative. There are certain organizations that are dedicated to making YouTube documentaries and political videos such as Brave New Films that produced clips like McCain’s Mansion Story that spread like wildfire over the blogosphere. Within a week of being posted on the net, it already has over 350,000 views. 35% of Americans have watched online political videos while 39% of Americans have used the internet to access “unfiltered campaign materials”.  If a campaign fails to recognize these changes, they’ll very likely be left in the dust…

Leaders have been scratching their heads trying to figure out what the Net Gen want. Many of the answers may lie in what they pay to watch.

From movies like Xmen, The Hulk, Ironman, and Fantastic Four, to TV shows like Heroes and Smallville, superheroes seem to be on the mind of the Net Generation. So then what do they see in them and why?

1- The Net Generation heroes are coming from comic books. We don’t have any Churchhills we look up to. We are known for scrutinizing leadership. This might be caused by transparency. We know our leaders too well. The bible says, “No man is a prophet in his own country.” When it is so easy to uncover dirt about your leaders you find it hard to respect them so you turn to the comics.

2- We have superheroes because we can affiliate with them. Our Boomer parents gave us the cape growing up. We were taught that we could do anything we put our minds to. We like the idea of being unique and special, and we have great desires to do good.

3- The Superheroes are coming in teams. Even movies like The Hulk and Ironman are being set up to join alliances or leagues. We want to be superheroes but don’t want to do it alone.

So what can leaders take away from pop-culture? Net gen are seeking a better world, they want be the hero, but they want to do it together. I watched a YouTube video by an anthropologist named Michael Wesch studying social media. He called this idea cultural inversion. He said that we live in an interesting time period. We crave connection more than ever but at the same time also want more freedom and individuality.

Here’s the Leadership Laundry List: Create environments that will allow them to “become the hero”. Play off their strengths, mentor them and give continuous feedback, praise them, and include them. Don’t mandate from the top. Give them a vision or “something to fight for”. Share responsibility, and customize their roles to maximize their potential. Give them responsibilities that will allow them to shine but don’t cut them off from the group.

In the end, regardless of generational differences it comes down to proper communication. To get the results you want, give your people the tools to be successful. Those tools will only be identified through constant communication and feedback.

He set up the website NYGirlOfMyDreams.com with a detailed illustration of himself and the girl along with other specifics of the subway (non) encounter, he even had his number and e-mail openly available.

And through the power of people and the Internet… Patrick found his dream girl – within 48 hours! A friend of hers happened to be on the site and sent him an e-mail saying he thinks he knows the girl he’s looking for. A texted photo later confirmed that he had found his girl.

After he found her he put up an announcement saying that he had found her and thanked everyone who helped pass along his message. The two had started dating, but have since broken up. Not the fairy tale ending I was looking for, but still an extremely romantic story with an amazing modern twist.

The University of Waterloo has taken notice and is currently building a “Dormcubator” to link 70 of their best and brightest tech students together. According to an article in PC World the University of Waterloo is revamping one its dorms to make room for these students. The $400,000 project is designed to give them a place to live and interact with other like minded individuals.

There is some debate about the necessity for a physical space-based incubator. In the article, Raymond Luk, founder of the Montreal-based business start-up and business consultancy Flow Consulting explains:

“When it’s a physical space-based incubator, there can be a disconnect between the physical presence and what it actually requires to build a company. The challenge for incubators with a physical presence is against empire-building, where (the incubator administrators) just want to protect the infrastructure, which is different than the needs of the entrepreneur. They don’t need office space, Internet access, or Foosball tables–what you really need is people and money, which is what’s lacking in Canada. You need mentors and other successful entrepreneurs–that’s what will be worth everything.”

During the time the article was written, the program was also considering high school student applications depending on their technical ability. This is one more example of people taking the age off innovation.

It is no secret that Obama has blown his opponents out of the water on YouTube. 

• Seven of the videos on Obama’s official YouTube page have drawn more than a million views, with his speech on race pushing the 5 million mark. Not one Clinton video has made it to a million, and McCain’s most viewed clip has drawn less than half that.
•  The cumulative viewership of all the YouTube videos Obama has posted in the last three weeks is almost 2 million, while neither Clinton nor McCain has broken 400 thousand.

Is this because Obama just coincidentally happens to appeal to those young and wired voters who use a lot of YouTube? Partially, no doubt.But Obama is also using YouTube more effectively. Specifically, he is posting longer and more insightful videos.

Consider, for YouTube videos posted by the candidates over the last three weeks: 

•  The average length was 7 minutes.
•  Three of the four most-viewed Obama videos are over 20 minutes, and the fourth is 13 minutes long.
•  The only two Clinton videos that were longer than 20 minutes (all the others were less than four minutes) were in her top-three most viewed.
•  For all three candidates, on average, longer videos get more views:

Longer clips are preferable because, rather than regurgitate what is already on TV and in the papers, they provide us with greater insight and ability to scrutinize. It’s a myth that NetGeners don’t follow politics on TV. Its just that we know that watching CNN for 5 minutes isn’t much more informative than watching it all day. We go to YouTube for greater insight, to use that NetGen norm of scrutiny, and short clips consisting of ads and quick sound bytes don’t  provide that opportunity.It is interesting that, in the chart above, Obama and Clinton attract, on average, the same number of views for videos of the same length. That makes a lot of sense, because you would expect viewers to want to watch videos of all the candidates.Part of the scrutiny that NetGeners bring to following politics is a desire to be informed of all perspectives. At school, living in a house full of politics majors and Obama supporters, my housemates and I spent a lot of time watching his YouTube videos. The thing is, we always wanted to watch Clinton and McCain videos as well. But we could rarely find ones that were insightful. If they had done a better job at providing useful content, we probably would have watched their videos as much as those of our candidate.  I get the impression that Clinton and McCain both view YouTube as a way to engage with a younger, and in their minds less mature, audience. Instead, like Obama, they should see it as a way of bypassing the mindlessness of mainstream political coverage, and engaging in a higher level of civic dialogue. The first step is longer videos. (We’ll have to hope that Nick Carr, Mark Bauerlein, and other boomers will have the attention span )

Bauerlein argues in his book that digital technologies have led to distractions that make the Net Generation less knowledgeable than previous generations about what he considers important issues and concepts. He uses as some of his evidence various surveys about geographical knowledge, historical reference, and literary awareness. Kids today shun Shakespeare? This boomer, for one, feels no shame in never having read a single work of Shakespeare (I did, however, read just about every issue of ’70s-era Mad Magazine cover to cover — can I get a “What Me Worry”).

Sharon Begley (no slouch as a journalist of intellectual issues) and Jeneen Interlandi argue that Bauerlein’s premise in the book is thin — they cite as evidence to the contrary a rise in IQ scores across the globe, as well as studies that show the ability of NetGeners to think coginitively and logically, learn and remember, and absorb immense amounts of diverse data in short-term memory. They also point out that it’s irresponsible to indict an entire generation without scientific evidence.

Of course, Don Tapscott’s upcoming book, “Grown Up Digital,” which is the follow-on to his best seller “Growing Up Digital,” provides plenty of evidence to the contrary about NetGeners, as well. This is a generation that, he argues, is many things: smart, creative, socially aware, eager to lead, etc — but “dumb” is definitely not one of the attributes. Don points out in his book, as Begley and Interlandi say in Newsweek, that the cognitive skills this cohort is acquiring through its absorption of information delivered by digital technology will enable them to dramatically change the world for the better. As the Newsweek article puts it, “Maybe they’ll deploy their minds to engineer an affordable 100mpg car, to discover the difference in the genetic fingerprints of cancers that spread and those that do not, to identify the causes and cures of intolerance and hate.” And they conclude, “Writing off any generation before it’s 30 is what’s dumb.”

There are shortages of qualified American students and even the visa students from Eastern Europe  that used to take a lot of these jobs are less willing to come over because of the declining value of the U.S. dollar.

Why are the Net Gen less interested in lifeguard jobs? From the article:

As the swimming season opened over Memorial Day weekend, area pool managers were facing the most severe lifeguard-supply shortage in memory—perhaps the worst ever, says Amy Kroloff of Century Pools.

“This is definitely the most challenging year I’ve ever seen,” says Kroloff, whose Kensington-based employer manages hundreds of community, apartment, and condo pools on the East Coast and is the biggest such manager in the D.C. market. “I’ve heard it was hard in the 1980s, but I wasn’t around for that. We thought we had the problems figured out.”

At some point during that last drought, Century and other large-scale pool management firms figured out they could no longer depend simply on American butts to fill the lifeguard chairs. Kids here started deciding jobs at the mall were better than those at the pool. And summer school went from a place reserved for unmotivated dirtballs taking remedial English to a hangout for responsible youngsters—good lifeguard stock—looking for college prep.

And, pool folks had to admit, lifeguarding had attained a rather shlocky stigma.

“Baywatch didn’t help us, I’ll tell you that,” says Hank Lavery, a pools lifer.

In college, everyone has those professors that can really get under your skin. It drives us crazy because, when they look at you, you can almost see their mind weighing the value of your comments and opinions upon the number of degrees you have. If you’re a freshman, you might as well be five years old. This attitude could be one reason why many frustrated people view school as being “just another hoop to jump through.”

This message is not a shot at professors…well, maybe some professors (the kind nobody likes, that get the frowny faces on ratemyprofessors.com), but more a shot at the way many universities see their students. Are students assets or liabilities to administrators?

If they are seen as “liabilities” that professors have to deal with in between their papers and research, then schools of the future are going to face some trouble. This Net Generation disagrees with the old idea that: Students are blank slates that come to school to learn what the all knowing professors tell them. They quietly do their homework, conform, and in four years jump out from the hoops. Due to a childhood of social networks and parents encouragement to voice their opinions, the Net Generation refuses to do busy work, expects that they will be listened to and empowered to execute their ideas.

For large red tape organizations like universities, that even have “Space Committees” to create policies for picture hanging on walls, this can be hard to swallow. However, some are starting to see the importance of building a “community of assets” from their students and facilitating communication and collaboration between communities, government, businesses and students.

During her inauguration speech, Purdue President France Cordova outlined the importance of making organizational and strategic changes for the future by explaining the plans Purdue has for its students in the coming years. Purdue has seen the United States’ need for talented young people in science and technology. For this purpose they have changed many of their teaching goals to include:

1. Lowering class sizes

2. Steering students toward those disciplines

3. Creating an entrepreneurial culture to attract students

4. Allocating funds and resources to interdisciplinary research projects

5. Creating a culture of collaboration through localizing eleven interdisciplinary centers

6. Building commercial research parks to encourage partnerships with national and global businesses

7. Creating a cooperative “Super Project” between two of their offices

8. Setting a standard for leadership and global awareness

It seems that under the direction of President Cordova, Purdue’s students won’t view their education as jumping through hoops, but making a difference by collaborating, empowering and innovating.

An article in today’s Wall St. Journal discusses the issue. From the article:

The next front in the ever burgeoning field of wage-and-hour litigation? Blackberrys, according to a story in the National Law Journal.

According to the story, litigation could be “just around the corner,” filed by employees who will claim overtime for all the hours they’ve spent typing away on their Blackberrys, cell phones, or other communication devices.

“We’ll see it; it’s only a matter of time,” said Jeremy Roth, a lawyer in the San Diego office of Littler Mendelson. Roth said he has cautioned several clients about the issue in the last year, advising them to get policies in place. Added Roth: “Before there was at least an argument that no, the employee is not being truthful when they say, ‘I did all this work after hours.’ But now, that swearing contest is taken out of the mix.”

Strategies for employers could include requiring permissions to use a blackberry after hours or making an explicit agreement that the freedom of working remotely comes with an implicit agreement that hours get stretched (or, hey, N-Geners you can’t have it both ways). Or, as someone posted in the discussion section of the article:

The receipt of an email or the ringing of a phone do not require a response. Instead of suing, how about ignoring?

In a world where the job application procedure has evolved to where face to face contact has sometimes been replaced with virtual meetings (in worlds such as Second Life), isn’t it also about time that the boring old resume started to evolve as well?  The standard format of: this is who I am, this is where I went to school and this is where I’ve worked may seen a bit passe to many prospects, particularly N-Geners with big aspirations, who find it difficult to put everything in to neat little boxes, including “work experience”, “education”, and “community involvement” to name a few.

Where resume 1.0 has long held exclusive reign, companies such as Visual CV have entered the market to provide more colourful applicant representations (both literally and figuratively).  Allowing users to create electronic documents that can be customized to the users’ needs to include extras such as PDF files of recommendation letters and hyperlinks to employer and institutional information, these CVs provide much more depth than a traditional black and white, one page resume of the day.

In theory, I think Visual CV and its competitors may be on to something – namely that the CV is in need of an overhaul – but in practice, I am not sure if it is more photos/videos and PDFs that will make for a stronger and more useful CV – both from an applicant’s and an employee’s perspective. 

In a world where HR managers are pressed for time and often lack the luxury of spending more than a few minutes on a resume’s initial pass, I am unsure whether the extra time required to create a more colourful CV will provide commensurate reward for either the applicant or the potential employer.  (Not to mention the legal issues that may be associated in certain places with the inclusion of a photo)   

What is required, moreso, may be a fundamental change in some of the questions answered on a standard resume. Potential sections of the successful future CV may include:  What I know. Where I have done it. Who I know and what they know. What I want to create and Who I want to meet and why.

The CV is typically a tool used to gain an applicant an interview, where the ability to shine and truly “colour” one’s experience should come.  Is there the need to fast forward some of the ability to expand on experience onto the resume or is the resume best left as is?  When is “good enough” actually just as it sounds?  Is changing the CV subtraction by addition? What do you think?

It’s amazing the difference a few years makes in the daily lives of young people. When I was young (and I’d like to think I’m still relatively young), at elementary school, the only way to keep in touch with classmates was through snail mail (at that age I wasn’t allowed to, nor was I interested in, using the phone) – and snail mail definitely isn’t the best way to communicate with anyone. But even as I got older, I never got to use technologies such as IM to keep in touch with my friends at school during the summer time or to discuss questions about homework. (I remember when I first started using IM at the end of high school, probably around OAC, my friends thought I was really geeky and nerdy – my IM use really took off when I got to university though). I look at how my sisters study and do work now in high school and it seems like light-years have passed from the archaic idea of dictionaries, encyclopedias and even libraries – who uses books these days anyways? When you have Wikipedia! Why do you need to consult any of those ‘old-school’ resources when everything can be found online?

Now, social networks add an entirely new dimension of communication and keeping in touch; but along with these opportunities, there are risks. Although most social networking sites have a minimum age policy of 13 or 14, none of these are actively enforced and when young kids, say 13 or 14 (let’s not even talk about any younger than that) come online, realistically speaking, they’re probably not aware of the implications associated with having a profile online with pictures and personal information. What’s more, many of them may not entirely understand the idea of privacy and controlling those privacy settings. Even greater cause for concern however, as discovered from this survey, 16% of parents polled don’t know if their child’s profile is visible to all and 53% of children say their parents don’t set rules for them when using social networking sites. These numbers may be a bit scary, but if you think about it, there are also huge implications for this generation – the “Net Generation” – in the workforce. If people think that the kids graduating today are ‘bad’ and grew up differently, then what about the kids that will be graduating 10-15 years from now?

Here’re some interesting stats pulled out from the OfCom research (pulled from an article on the BBC):

• 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
• 22% of 16+ have an online profile
• 59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
• 16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
• 33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
• 43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks

I resisted playing the game for a couple of days as I knew I would get pulled in, but once I cracked, boy did I have fun.  While I’ve only played for a cumulative three or 4 hours, I have had a blast doing so.  Being the ”hero” I knew I would be (sarcasm noted), after defeating Lou, the boss on Easy, I was ready to move on to the next bigger and better challenge, which I my case was Rock Band. 

I had played the popular Harmonix game at a friend’s house on PS3 and was blown away when mid-way through a song, a friend suggested they wanted to hear an Oasis song, and lo and behold, to my astonishment, the owner of the game grabbed the PS controller, went online and purchased “The Oasis Pack” and within minutes, we were butchering the popular cover Wonderwall.

I was blown away by the level of interaction and immediate customization that Harmonix had built into the game (which has lead to six-times platinum sales from songs sold through the game since its release in November) and I couldn’t wait to go through the same madness of waiting weeks to finally get my hands on a Wii version of Rock Band, which had yet to be released.

That was until today – when Harmonix revealed that they would be releasing Rock Band for Wii on June 22nd, without it’s greatest feature – the ability to download your own tracks to deepen and customize your gaming experience.

I echo the statements of many on the blogosphere today in saying that as geeky as it sounds, my excitement to wait in line for Rock Band has been crushed by the breaking news.  Forums on the press release on the game’s site have been closed for comment, but the deluge of feedback ensues on numerous other sites. . .and much of it seems to point to the feeling that Harmonix has just taken a huge step in the wrong direction, back to static-content video games 1.0.

Any aspiring “heroes” out there with an opinion?

This story also carries two important side notes:

1. I am very impressed by the ability for games like GH to bridge the generational gap and make games a family experience, as I witnessed both parents (who would definitely otherwise never play video games) and their children, my mom and I included, playing GH together this weekend and having a blast.

2. I find it harder and harder to sympathize with an industry that is “in decline” while now selling millions of songs through previously unheard of and impossible revenue streams.  Bravo to the innovators of these games who have unlocked an entirely new market!

An excerpt from the introduction follows:

I say, smart move. The Fund basis its investment portfolio on what they call the “Demographic Convergence Thesis,” or more specifically:

“The investment thesis that believes that there are specific companies and industries that are taking advantage of the convergence between Generation X and Y’s newfound spending power and trend setting and the Baby Boomers’ desire to stay young forever and use their spending power to emulate the trends of the younger generations.”

According to the Microsoft Small Business Center, American Net Geners average $100 a week in disposable income, or approximately $150 billion a year. They also influence another $50 billion in family purchases a year, bumping the annual total to $200 billion. The Gendex Fund makes investing in youth brands accessible to the youth audience by pricing the minimum investment at $100. Now young people that always wanted to invest in companies like Google or Microsoft can actually afford to do it.

Now three months old, the Gendex Mutual Fund is proving that, hype aside, its investment strategy works. Since November, Gendex has consistently outperformed the Nasdaq. This has been especially true in recent weeks, indicating perhaps that Net Gen brands are also slightly more insulated against market downturns.

Ok, I admit that it is arguable whether or not his song actually deserves the amount of popularity that it has (it isn’t exactly a masterpiece) but he has managed to shoot into relative superstardom among his target audience and has kids/teens/young adults singing and dancing to his song around the world.

Now – I mention dancing, but Soulja Boy fans know that you don’t just ‘shake your booty’ so to speak to this song, because EVERYONE knows that there’s a dance to it. Yes, you read that right, there’s a choreographed dance to this song – developed by the Soulja Boy team themselves. The best part – there’s an instructional video of it, on YouTube (posted by Soulja Boy), where you see Soulja Boy and his crew speaking directly to you, and teaching you how to do their dance. Why don’t more artists do this? It’s fun (depending on who you talk to), it definitely is engaging, and pretty cool when the song comes on in a club and everyone starts doing the dance. This video happens to be one of the most viewed videos on YouTube of all time with 24,087,136 views (24th most viewed to be exact).
The actual music video for ‘Crank that’, also posted by Soulja Boy himself, has done even better with an impressive 28,467,055 views – the 16th most viewed video of all time on YouTube – I’d say that’s pretty impressive.

So how have they managed to become so successful? Soulja Boy has his own YouTube Channel where they not only post the latest clips from their concerts or their newest music video – they also provide a healthy list of different mashups created by regular N-Geners or other artists. Soulja Boy gets it. They understand that the youth today like to customize, make things their own and remix – and they have experienced great success in allowing their fans to do so. Some of these mashups that have also done incredibly well include: a Travis Barker remix (drummer from Blink 182) with 8,753,679 views, a SpongeBob square pants remix with 22,337,817 views, and even a group of young ballet students doing the dance with 1,084,783 views.

* note: the screen shot I took of these mashups were from a bit less than a month ago, so the view count as you can see has gone up a couple million in that time*

So for your viewing pleasure, here is our – New Paradigm created (credit: Derek Pokora) – mashup of mashups… enjoy.

Downloading and streaming high definition movie files (both .FLV and .MOV) is increasingly becoming both quick and convenient through the combination of the H.264 compression codec, high-speed internet connections (getting faster constantly as Rogers now offers 16mbit down connections, and Verizon offers 20mbit), cheap hard disk storage, and decreasing bandwidth costs – the perfect storm. It resembles the MP3 phenomenon of 2001 that was accelerated by Winamp and Napster.

The Net Generation norms include Speed (we want things NOW), Freedom (when and where WE want them), and Entertainment (keep everything fun will you?). As David pointed out earlier in his post here, we Net Gener’s are not against spending money. We’ve grown up in fruitful times (which may be ending very soon), and have always been able to scrounge up money to spend (credit – could be why things may turn bad now). A lot of us choose to pirate because it’s just that much more convenient and flexible. We can grab the files via Bit-Torrent, watch them when we want on our PCs, burn them into a DVD, resize them for our iPods and mobiles. One file – many screens.Consumer electronics are quickly becoming networked internet appliances – many TVs and set-top boxes already have integrated Ethernet ports. From the other end, computers are showing up in the living in the form of home-theatre PCs. The saturation of internet connected devices with displays is far higher than any HD optical disk player.

Content delivery networks (CDN) are the backbone of delivering this rich media to users on demand and have seen large venture capital funding rounds as large as $97M this year. With this advancement there has been an influx of online movie rental portals with big names such as NetFlix, Amazon, and even Blockbuster entering the space (who has started to close brick and mortar locations). A set-top box called the VUDU has also entered the market, which is a unique combination of traditional consumer electronic device (much like TiVo) which connects to the internet and allows you to download for purchase or rental, DVD or HD quality movies as quickly as it is available in stores.

So this holiday season, don’t fret over HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Actually, don’t ever make this decision, because I believe that 2008 and beyond belongs to the digital file.