On behalf of Ronni… Inspired by recent family events and PLM Think Tank recent posts :).
Another case for Microblogs or a collaborative social software platform.
How did I become the single point of access for transportation to and from a movie theater during the holiday season? It started innocently enough. A gifted class of thirty, residing geographically within 30 kilometers or so of the Tel Aviv metropolis, went on a week of winter vacation from school. Their platform of communication with each other is text messaging and emails. Although they may be the most technologically talented group of teenagers, able to grasp new ideas at a rate much higher than their parents (who were also born before personal computers existed), their inherent organizational skills lag far behind their IQs.
So what’s a parent to do? Suddenly I found my cellphone being the central point of contact for this group of teenagers. One of them initiated an evening at a movie theater but left the task of getting back and forth from the cinema ‘open’. They decided to call me and ask if I had room in my car back and forth from the cinema. I had already relayed the information about my son’s transportation to two people, and yet the phone calls continued.
Would a Microblog be a solution? Or some sort of platform where the children would communicate with each other throughout the day, accessing one Microblog where they would know the number of children attending, which cities they were coming from, number of movie tickets to purchase, and number of places vacant in their parents’ cars in both directions.
I am familiar with www.airset.com and have heard of Twitter, but it seems like these teenagers know more about the technology regarding the animation of the movie they have chosen to see than the logistics regarding collaborating on their destination and transportation.
This is just one example of one community collaborating on what should be a simple task, and yet the factors affecting this community are only some of those challenges affecting an small organization in its day-to-day operations – short deadlines, not all have access to computers and the same data during the day, no license to drive cars (have to outsource transportation to their parents or older siblings), no authorization to use credit cards independently in order to purchase tickets in person (thus losing out on 2 for 1 discounts, etc.) and geographical dispersion within one country.
Microblog or Mommy to the rescue? I’m not sure.
