Accelerated convergence: regardless of the politics involved, this year's presidential campaign forecasts changes in the way business is done.

Don't expect any political endorsements for president here. I find that if I endorse any particular candidate, it limits my ability to gripe about him in the future. Or, at least do it without blushing in embarrassment. But, one thing has become apparent in the 2008 presidential elections, the adoption of the "new media" by the candidate with a donkey as its symbol.

There's the "old" media--newspapers, magazines, radio, and television--still being used, but this is really the first national campaign where cellular communications and the Internet have played a planned and important part.

The Democrat candidate used the Internet to an unprecedented degree to raise campaign funds. His campaign used e-mail and text messaging to announce his vice presidential running mate at 3 a.m., much to the chagrin of those who hadn't turned off their cell phones.

A significant amount of his support is from younger voters to whom the Internet isn't a curiosity, but a mundane part of the communications spectrum, similar to the way TV is to the Baby Boom generation. In fact, there was a movement on the social network, Facebook, to have the current Democratic candidate run for president six months before he announced his candidacy.

It's the Text, Not the Subtext 

One of the reasons he did so well in some of the primary elections is that his campaign texted young people, reminding them to vote.

On one of the political talking-head cable shows, a TV pundit said about 80 percent of college students are on social networks like Facebook or MySpace. For the 18-to 35-year-old demographic, social networking, like tweeting on Twitter, has as much import as wetware friends. Expect that kind of involvement to infiltrate the metalworking business.

Huh? What language are you speaking and why is this important to me and my shop?

Here's some background for those of us who won't see a birthday in our 40s ever again.

Social networks, of which Facebook and MySpace are but two examples, are web-based communities of people who can share common interests. Young people go on the web and join these sites, profiling themselves and searching for other people online with similar interests.

"Twitter" is a micro-blogging social network, where people can post messages up to 140-characters long and have them posted online or delivered to other Twitter users in what can be an almost constant description of what they are doing at any one time. To post a message is called tweeting.

If you need "blog" defined, it's time to go sit on the front porch and whittle while you wait for the Pony Express to gallop by.

What does all of this have to do with metalworking? Maybe nothing critical right now, but as those 18-year-olds move into the workforce, its importance will grow.

Change is Coming, and Quickly

Even now, we're seeing the first stages of it. Back in the 20th Century, businesses realized the growing importance of maintaining a website and how it could be a valuable tool for informing customers and generating business and income.

Following that came web-based business bidding sites. Some companies swear by them, others find them nothing but low-ball proposal requesters. But, it's a new avenue that should be incorporated into the business model.

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What all of this points toward is an upcoming generation who has a deeper connection with different types of networks that will impact the way business is found and accomplished.

For instance, for me a cell phone is just a phone. I punch numbers and make calls. For Associate Editor Stacia Golem, with her new BlackBerry, it's a means of checking her e-mail, texting friends, and surfing the Internet. That new access is expanding into shop business. Already there are systems that allow machines working lights-out to call or e-mail a human if something out of the ordinary happens. It won't be long before we're all so connected that we'll be connecting to our vendors at 3 a.m. without worrying about disturbing their night's sleep.

Pete Nofel

Modern Applications

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