Letter from the President: By Matt Wainwright

#GMIS.

 

It was once a number sign and a pound sign, I swear! Who decided it was a hashtag – and when? Well, apparently it started back in 2007 with a tweet by San Francisco techie and former Google developer Chris Messina. He wrote on Twitter, "How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups?" Two days later, a fellow Google dude named Stowe Boyd suggested that the "number sign" be called "hashtag." It's all in the link I reference above and noted as a cultural phenomenon. It is a cultural phenomenon.

I remember when the Internet was a cultural phenomenon, back when my generation was THE generation. I mean – don't we all think our own generation is the bomb? Do people still say "the bomb?" The Internet instantly meant the 1990s were going to be nuts. You invested in a stock and knew it was going up before you bought it. You demanded stock options because the job market had a ton of demand and little supply, especially in the tech sector. The downside of those roaring 1990s? Maybe you bought a house you didn't need? The birth of the McMansion. I'm proud to say I'm traditional and even then knew when some of my buddies were buying these giant houses they would be screwed down the road. You knew it wouldn't last. And if you were a smart technology person you knew right away that running AOL would eventually feel like a kiddie pool with dead worms on the bottom. Thank goodness for Netscape.

So what is our next phenomenon? Robotics and drones, perhaps redundant in nature, are already reshaping the economic landscape, and doing so in far more depth than any of us realize, in my opinion. That includes warfare. When Google bought Boston Dynamics last year, it was an obvious move. This BD video is a year old and it still scares me. You can see "The Cheetah" here – the fastest robot in the world nearly topping out at 30 miles per hour. That's faster than my mother drives, unfortunately.

I think our next phenomenon is not a thing, but rather a person. The millennial generation is going to be phenomenal at its peak. And the generation after that, those newborns through about 13 years old, even more phenomenal. It’s because these two generations, respectively, anticipate the world differently and are better connected. Granted, we hear about a large percentage of younger generations not having ambition to work in a job they don't want in order to build sweat equity, character and wisdom. I'd be lying if I said those values should be ignored by any generation. Certainly Mark Zuckerberg understands sweat equity. And word is $30 trillion dollars will be passed from Baby Boomers to these two younger generations.

Whatever the #nextphenomenon will be, it is key that as IT leaders we leverage new ideas and bridge the gap between generations. Maintaining the status quo doesn't cut it anymore in the IT industry, and it is up to us to stay ahead of the curve and embrace changes.