New ways of communicating

Communication is the most important skill in any business or profession. As a professional person, communication can take many forms and can take place on a number of levels. Communication can be internal, external, informal, formal, contractual etc. Communication is not a simple concept. Today, successful communication requires the immediateness and the directness that only modern technology can bring. No, I’m not talking about the fax machine. I believe that the fax machine will become obsolete within 5 years.

Just in case anyone hadn’t noticed and just to make everything perfectly clear…

…we are in the middle of a revolution.

Of course, this revolution is not characterised by hoards of peasants ransacking the homes of the high-and-mighty. It’s much stealthier than that. This revolution is not a political revolution it is a technological revolution. This revolution is not about money it is about information. More importantly it is about how this information is communicated. This revolution has not taken us by surprise. Marshall McLuhan identified this revolution over 30 years ago. He also predicted how it would change our lives. This is the Digital Revolution and it is as unstoppable as any that have preceded it.

The difference between technological revolutions and political revolutions is the period of time that they take to run their course. The Digital Revolution, like the Industrial Revolution before it may last for some 60 to 70 years. Sometimes it is difficult to know whether it is technology that drives the changes or whether it is our digital aspirations that create a technological need. Whatever the process, the revolution has at least another 20 years to run (if you consider that it began in the 1950’s with early electronic computers). Currently we are going through a period that has become known as the Information Age. The Information Age has come about as a result of a new information infrastructure, the Internet. It is the Internet that is determining the way we work today and the way our work will change tomorrow.

So much for history, the real question is:

As a landscape practitioner, how do I best proceed in a world that is in constant technological flux and how can I ensure that I am able to communicate in the most appropriate manner?

There is only one answer, you must be informed, you must plan ahead, and you must martial your resources, in short, you need an IT strategy.

You need an IT strategy because the most tangible effects of this revolution, like the Industrial Revolution, are sociological rather than technological. The Digital Revolution is affecting the way we work. If we don’t have a strategy that can cope with these changes, we will, like the Luddites, be swept aside by the momentum of inevitable change.

So, having decided that you must be a part of this change, what should you do? The first thing you should do is to ask some questions.