SciFi or History?

Earlier this week I was on a day trip, let off the work-hook for a day, whoaaa!
Instead of staying at home – which means being near blackberry, iphone, two landlines and laptops dotted around the house – I took a day out to see something totally different: a castle built in 1661, which from 1764 had belonged to the same family right up until January of 2009. That alone is a grounding factor – that  there are things in today’s fast moving, rapidly changing world that remain the same, over many centuries.
 
As we walked through the (wildly overgrown) grounds, we passed an area with a large farm built on it, all forming part of the estate. The guide explained that this farm along with a number of others had all been built along one distinct line which initially had puzzled researchers. Eventually they figured out that there was a simple reason; The estate ran along a river which although a few kilometers away meant that the water from the river seeped into the ground determining the vegetation that was possible and other flora/fauna. The farms had all been built on the exact turn where the moisture in the ground allowed them the best possible farming conditions with the soil neither being too wet, nor being too dry. As the guide pointed out ‘ it was on right on the turn that often unusual and different growths was possible which you would not find anywhere else in the country'.
 
I immensely enjoyed the day – but this one thought stayed with me: exciting things happen in the area where two types of anything meet. You can draw an easy parallel to business life. Isn’t it where old and new meet, or where two cultures overlap that you create tension? But tension is not a bad thing, it stimulates your thinking along paths hitherto untrodden, it even forces you to come up with solutions that were not there before. It creates excitement and opportunity if you want to see it.

This is so very true also in the world of “new media” – in effect there is nothing new about the media, even internet has been around now for commercial use for over 15 years. But the borders between how we behaved using pen & paper, versus how we behave these days now that we have access to PDA’s, mobiles and internet create vast new opportunities and we are still figuring that out. This is exactly the space where social media is growing up – creating new ways that allow people to meet, virtual and in the real world, and maintain contact. And you see that here is also a space where it is either too “wet” – too much generic noise that doesn’t have value and that people are already beginning to move away from – and too “dry” – no contact and no network that you belong to.

It’s the middle ground that will prove the most fertile for new relationships, new ways of doing business and new horizons. That is where old meets new, and people can sow and reap their rewards from the new tools that grow in the newly churned area. It is great to continue being part of this and seeing what new applications and elements will be generated over the next period of time. And maybe in another 400 years, someone will be given a guided virtual history tour and learn about  this line that was discovered and the exciting things that happened when two eras met....

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Contributing

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  Adam Smith

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  Phyllis Barr

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  Daniel Garcia