Elizabeth Albrycht is a 16-year veteran of high technology public relations practice and co-founder of the
New Communications Forum, a conference series designed to bring journalists and marketing and PR professionals together to learn how to use participatory communications tools. She is a founding advisory board member and is the chair of the research committee for the
Society for New Communications Research: . Elizabeth has authored articles on blogging, RSS and other new tools for a variety of industry publications, and has presented teleseminars and in-person seminars on new communications tools for PRSA and
Ragan Communications: . She often speaks about social media in both the US and Europe, and blogs about PR and corporate communications at
CorporatePR.
Dave Desforges began piloting "Work From Home" solutions over 3 years ago. His role required identifying additional candidate requirements and necessary remote work practices for both employees and managers at Sun Microsystems. His current work encompasses blending appropriate technology, organizational practices, and workplace environments to support mobile and distributed teams.
Jim McGee is currently a Director at Huron Consulting Group. He has spent much of the last 30 years working to understand, design, and apply information and technology innovations in organizations. Before Huron, Jim taught at the Kellogg School and was one of the founding partners of DiamondCluster International. With Larry Prusak, he was the co-author of Managing Information Strategically (Wiley, 1993). Jim has both an MBA and a doctorate in Information Technology, Organization, and Strategy from the Harvard Business School.
Regina Miller has more than 18 years of experience in Organization Development, Human Resources, Leadership Development and International Operations. Regina recently launched a global consultancy called The Seventh Suite which assists growing companies bolster their competitive edge via aligned strategy and progressive people practices. Her last corporate job was as the VP HR/OD for Oskar (Vodafone) which has been dubbed “one of the fastest growing mobile operators in Eastern Europe.” More info
here.
Giovanni Rodriguez - Through a combination of luck and persistence, Giovanni has worked in the company of some of the most interesting and colorful leaders in several worlds: the law, theater, and technology. Today, he is a principal at Eastwick Communications, a Silicon Valley PR agency, where he advises both emerging companies and market leaders on executive leadership, public speaking, marketing strategy and media relations. He has worked for, consulted and advised numerous businesses and organizations including HP, Stanford University, Fujitsu Computer Systems, Cadence Design Systems, VMware, the American Arbitration Association, and the Unified Court System of New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University (Religion and Anthropology), and he has done graduate course work at the Columbia School of Journalism and N.Y.U.
Jim Ware is a cofounder of the Work Design Collaborative and the Future of Work program. He has over 30 years experience in research, executive education, consulting, and management, including five years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. He was the lead author of The Search for Digital Excellence, (McGraw-Hill, 1998), and holds Ph.D., M.A., and B.Sc. degrees from Cornell University and an MBA (With Distinction) from the Harvard Business School.
Giovanni Rodriguez
Elizabeth Albrycht
Dave Desforges
Jim McGee
Jim Ware
What do you think the average age is and what are the implications of that for the future of technology, design and work? (We might also notice the gender and race of the group too.) Maybe Rajat can get us started with his initial thoughts?
1. Rajat Paharia on June 27, 2005 5:16 PM writes...
I was surprised at the amount of grey hair in the picture. Having worked at a large product design company and with several people in the field, it seems to be very youth focused. Whether it's because of the long hours/low pay, or the belief that young people have more creative spark, or that they have more of the cutting-edginess that you need to cut through the clutter, I don't know. This could just be my personal experience, here in the SF Bay Area, and maybe there are more older workers at places like DEKA. Contrasting the look of some websites is an interesting exercise, to see who the companies are trying to appeal to for both customers and employees:
http://www.dekaresearch.com/
http://www.ideo.com
http://www.appliedminds.com/
http://www.whipsawinc.com/
One of the big challenges for designers is always empathy. Sometimes you have firsthand experiences that gives you a foundation on which to do your research. Other times you don't - then how do you get a core understanding of who the end users are, their needs, the challenges they face? Young designers often have to use tools and scenarios to accomplish this, like the ones detailed here.
I bring this up because the workforce is trending older. So it brings up an interesting question - who should be designing the office spaces of the future, and who should they be designing them for? The growing number of older workers or the new tech-savvy 20-somethings entering the workforce?
A final thought on Babble - I'd love to have something like this that I could carry around with me during the day that was sampling snippets of my conversations, and then turn it on at night when I'm going to bed, falling asleep to the fragments of my day. Like a personal Akufen.
Permalink to Comment2. Regina Miller on June 27, 2005 8:23 PM writes...
Appreciate your comments and observations Rajat. You're right about empathy. Actually it is probably one of the attributes required for most of us in the workforce - needing to understand others from their perspectives - and if you don't know what it is like to be older and don't remember what it was like to be younger,or to be the other sex, or to be another color, religion, etc....well many important details and specifics don't get addressed. (In my last job, I was the oldest person (at 42) on a seven person management team. The COO was 32 and there were four women execs - Mktg., Finance, HR and COO. Anyway, avg. age at the company was 26 - so we kept it a very young, hip and current environment. See previous post the fountain of youths http://blogs.bnet.com/hr/?p=64. It definitely is becomes a corp culture question to be defined.
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