I’m not sure if this says more about my social life or my connected life but whatever. You can judge for yourself.
So it’s Friday night, my wife is out watching my girls perform in Annie. (I’m really a good parent, I watched them on Saturday I just don’t need to see it three times). So I find myself watching Jeff Utecht in Bangkok on his computer, streaming his former colleagues in Shanghai gathering together on a Saturday watching presentations from K12 online. You may have to read that sentence twice to get it.
Jeff held a similar event a couple of years ago. 2 years ago, streaming video was not readily available but Jeff did record some of that event for viewing after the fact. Today, streaming video is as easy as email. But Jeff had to do some fancy configurations to stream his Skype call from Shanghai back to Bangkok out to the world. I was concerned that the internet might break at any moment. Jeff has a reputation.
As much as I live this stuff everyday, there is still a WOW factor here. The WOW of an almost seamless discussion with people who care deeply about the things I do. I think WOW is good. I think WOW should be leveraged not as an end but a means to really important stuff. I agree that WOW isn’t enough anymore but to think that I could have a rich conversation with folks who offer a completely different perspective from the other side of the world would seem significant. I think having rich conversations locally is important and that’s exactly what the teachers in Shanghai were doing. There’s no reason why we would have to choose.
