Robin Good is the go-to guy for collaborative technology, so I was delighted to happen upon this post this morning.

Work Of The Future Like A Personalized Videogame Front-End "For some, the work of the future will resemble an elaborate, personalized video game front-end that’s connected to the physical operations of their company." Jay Cross says it as openly as he would drink a glass water and I am glad that there are individuals like him who do "see" the direction we are in. If you would like to open a bit more yourself to the emerging new concepts of workflow learning and to the paradigmatic revolution new communication/collaboration technologies are paving under our unconscious feet, I do suggest you spend a little time (1:07) watching Jay Cross presentation to the ASTD, which he delivered again to the organization chapter in Silicon Valley this past week. Entitled "Collaboration Supercharges Performance" the Breeze-based presentation contains the same slides and content he utilized a couple of months back for the main ASTD conference in Washington. Jay, along with a few others (some clearly listed on his right column blogroll) is a trusted agent for change in the way we conceive work and learning. His ongoing research, experimentation and provocative ideas are the best cure for anyone suffering from the large organization typical stand-and-wait attitude. Most such institutions "are living with overly rigid command-and-control [structures]. Courses and classrooms are the tradition; informal learning and collaboration are suspect. Management knows that learning is somehow important but measures performance by counting butts in seats." And also: "We are drowning in information, the world grows ever more complex, time is speeding up, and everything is topsy-turvy. Rigid organizations won't make it through this. Flexibility is prerequisite to survival. Networks are the next step in computing, business organizations, and more. As internodal communication costs drop, networks replace hierarchies. The age of collaborative learning is at hand. Mentoring used to be tied to events. Collaboration can be omnipresent." Jay Cross -- Reference Posted on July 18, 2004 at 09:23 AM