Play is the secret to keeping up with emerging technologies

Jeff Cole's fascination with media and communication technology began with tv, that he maintains continues to be "the most powerful medium ever invented". For over 3 decades, Cole's analysis within the field of rising media and technology has seen him function Director of the UCLA Centre for Communication Policy, testify before Congress, and advise presidents.

In Gregorian calendar month 1999, Cole helped started the globe net Project longitudinal study, which attracts on over a decade of user information to look at however on-line and digital technologies area unit remodeling our social, economic and media lives.

On his last visit to Australia, I chatted with Cole regarding the past impacts of net and digital technologies and the way tiny businesses above all would possibly navigate no matter comes next.

Smarter Business: What will tiny businesses learn from the impact of nascent technologies on the media industry?

Jeff Cole: tv was the sole medium we have a tendency to knew previous time was reaching to be a medium," same Cole. "What we must always have done however did not do is we must always have caterpillar-tracked individuals before they'd tv then gone back to them year when year, as they noninheritable  and used it, to visualize however it modified their lives. wherever the time came from, however it modified their shopping for behaviour, and m alternative things.

I became convinced within the late '90s that digital - initial the online, currently mobile - was reaching to be way more vital than tv. basic cognitive process we have a tendency to lost a good chance with tv, we have a tendency to launched this large project [The World net Project].

Sixteen years in, we will very see trends. that is a full generation. we will very begin to know amendment. Then, we will create affordable predictions. we have a tendency to area unit ready to foresee by trying back.

It ain't what you utilize however the method that you just use it that actually counts.

Smarter Business: will innovative schoolnology amendment behaviour or will the most effective tech merely change or amplify the behaviours that were already there?

Jeff Cole: it is usually circular. tv took associate audience that was wont to taking note of radio and observation movies, and it amplified that.

Part of the net continues that tradition. we have a tendency to do watch plenty of video on the net, however this can be completely different in an exceedingly number of ways in which. First, most media before this were amusement. There was perpetually news, however this can be a technology that transforms not simply however we have a tendency to're amused however however we work, however we have a tendency to communicate, however we have a tendency to play. perhaps it's most significant long impact are going to be however we have a tendency to learn.

Then, this has done one thing that no alternative medium has done before. It's become 24/7. we all know that ninety per cent of teenagers sleep next to their mobile phones. We're currently communication in our cars. We're communication walking down the road. If you and that i area unit having lunch tomorrow and you are 10 minutes late, i am responsive my email hoping you are twenty minutes late. This technology is filling all told the moments of our lives, which we've ne'er seen before.

I think this can be dynamic  behaviour over behaviour is dynamic  it.

Smarter Business: ought to tiny businesses pay additional attention to the fast pace of amendment inbusiness technology, notably however it relates to the long run of labor or future business ideas?

Jeff Cole: Since the traditional Greeks, each generation has same that the pace of amendment has ne'er been thus quick. They've perpetually been right however i believe this point it's very true.

We're seeing industries that noncontinuous industries ten, fifteen years past that area unit currently noncontinuous. photography entirely noncontinuous film, and currently digital cameras area unit dying. we actually area unit seeing a unprecedented pace of amendment. What I tell massive businesses and little businesses is you've got to just accept that.

I think it's obligatory businesses, on parents, on voters to possess a really steep learning curve; to experiment, to travel on-line, to play with things, to do Amazon Echoand study however Voice is dynamic , to do completely different types of programs, to be taking note to video game.

I happen to suppose video game goes to be vital to supermarkets, retailers and travel firms. i do not suppose firms have to be compelled to leave and pay various greenbacks on video game glasses. leave and pay $100 and begin twiddling with it.

Smarter Business: will the promotion around a number of these nascent technologies create it easier for tiny businesses to dismiss them as a trifle too wizard or sci-fi while not a concrete business application?

Jeff Cole: affirmative, i believe that is completely true. i discussed [Alexa] Voice and also the Amazon Echo. individuals swing it in their homes area unit getting down to perceive that you just will very have associate intelligent spoken communication with a machine.

I think you are going to travel into the market, you are going to travel into hardware stores, and you are going to start out communication with the product. you are going to raise questions on, "How do i take advantage of it?" If it's food, "What recipes am i able to create with this?"

Fifty years past, they were language that video game includes a nice potential. currently we're seeing that potential very moving quickly. i am going to provide you with one easy application in an exceedingly business.

I work with Wesfarmers, Bunnings. We're terribly near the purpose wherever you'll style your room within the store, otherwise you might love reception. you will practice your room to know however you would like it placed before you pay a penny. Then, you'll change the glasses to run through the room at the peak of your kids to visualize if it's purposeful for them. Then, you will change it to the peak of a chair to visualize if are you able to use that room in an exceedingly chair.

That's a real-life application. you are going to visualize many things like that.

Smarter Business: Is there a distinction within the rate of digital transformation and technology adoption in Australia? area unit we have a tendency to behind what you are seeing within the US?

Jeff Cole: No. In some ways in which being a smaller country, {you're a|you area unit a} very little additional nimble than we have a tendency to are. you are solely behind in an exceedingly number of areas wherever, for instance, Amazon Echo hasn't been marketed in Australia however as a result of they haven't been ready to build them quick enough. {you're|you area unit} solely behind wherever you do not have the chance to be wherever alternative countries are. In some places, you are ahead.

Incidentally, associate early parent of video game is $50 for a combine of glasses. associate early parent of Voice or Amazon Echo is $180. thirteen years past, associate early parent of a videodisk player was $1,000. We're not seeing these terribly high costs at the start. Now, to be associate early parent does not take thousands of greenbacks.

Discover why maintaining with the most recent gadgets or device upgrades does not have to be compelled to be costly or difficult.

Smarter Business: If the value of adopting rising technologiesis less of a barrier, is that the new challenge for tiny business having the time and resources to know, experiment with and implement all of those new digital trends and innovative technologies?

Jeff Cole: the problem is however does one create space in your head to be ready to perceive all these items.

Six years past, i used to be telling each company and each government that may hear ME, "Pay attention to Twitter," even supposing i assumed Twitter was flyaway. I wasn't recommending that they devote individuals, that they pay plenty of cash. i used to be language, "Get on Twitter. Play with it. know it. raise yourself, 'Does it have associate application for me?'"

Very quickly, Twitter became an essential news supply. Twitter is currently most likely the most effective client service tool we've ever seen, wherever firms will subsume client issues in real time, before of alternative customers. It's modified however Hollywood releases movies.

Six years past, i used to be language, "Understand Twitter." i might say these days, "Understand video game. perceive Voice. perceive driverless cars. while not investment, however learning."

Smarter Business: what is your one piece of recommendation to tiny businesses that also wish to be around and growing in 2020?

Jeff Cole: do not be petrified of technology. Your core mission is to still do what you are doing higher than anybody else and very create your customers a part of the method.