I wrote this quite some time ago, but bear with me…

I am a member of several interest groups and also a Board of Directors. These groups are mostly populated by intelligent and enthusiastic people. They communicate, for the most part, articulately and willingly. Their willingness to explore better communications ends abruptly and uncharactistically, however, when it comes to innovative use of technology to facilitate the dialog.

Most of these groups communicate regularly via the internet. Most have matured enough in net use to use email. As the group grows, of course, the cc lists become spotty as people come or go, and very long lists give some mail clients problems. Add to that the problems that come with an overloaded inbox, and you would think that people would embrace an alternative offering less symptoms and more convenience. You would be wrong…

I suggested that a discussion forum would solve many of the problems (and it would). But getting a large percentage of the group populace to learn the tiny bit of protocol needed to use a forum, let alone actually type a message into it, has proved to be a problem of shocking magnitude.

Then we have those who are challenged into terror by even too much email.

It leaves me shaking my head in dismay that the possibility of expanding group discussion while at the same time reducing individual overhead is so hard to sell.

I just don’t get it and it drives me crazy…

Now, fast forward to 2021. Zoom has taken over in the form of many packages. Technology use has been forced to advance a decade in one year. All good. Yet I find that the luddites continue to lurk in the shadows. People who still refuse to use the technology to advance their calling, persisting in the delusion that shortly everything will change back or that the new way is inherently evil.

Sorry, it ain’t gonna happen, folks. The foundational changes are here to stay, and more to come.