The Gurteen Perspective

Get connected – expand yourself!

In the past we worked alone. We were not connected. We had no real idea what others were doing – who they were; where they were; what drove them; their thoughts, ideas and aspirations.
Like a PC not plugged into the web, we were isolated and limited. We were a shadow of what we could be. We could have been so much more – if only we were connected, live, in real time to our working colleagues, our far-flung network, friends and family. Think of the impact.
So what does it mean? In the 1.0 world you were an unconnected dot while in the 2.0 world you are a wave, a net. You are everywhere.
In the 2.0 world, you are ‘connected’. And in being connected you expand yourself in many ways.

Your intelligence
Web 2.0 expands your intelligence. Here I mean intelligence as in a military or security sense. What do you know about that is really going on in your field of endeavour? Who are the leading thinkers? What are the new technologies? What are your competitors planning?

Your ‘over the horizon radar’
Over the horizon radar will see enemy aircraft approaching long before they are in clear line of sight: lethal threats, which once close enough to be seen, are too late to avoid or intercept. New ideas and technologies are similar – they are often not seen early enough. Web 2.0 helps you spot threats and opportunities that are over the horizon!

Your ability to learn
You don’t learn a language from a book or a sport by watching TV. You learn by interacting with other people: having conversations and working with them. Web 2.0 allows this.

Your ability to adapt
If you are open to new ideas, then Web 2.0 can have a huge influence on you and provoke you to change and adapt. In being connected you are more grounded in reality and start to see the world as it really is. This, in turn, can be a huge impetus forpersonal change.

Your ability to be found
Search for yourself on the web. Can people easily find you? Do you have a web presence? If people wanted to contact you urgently right now, whoever they were, anywhere in the world – could they? The 2.0 world makes this possible.

Your influence
Web 2.0 allows you to expand your influence – to express your point of view. Do you have any influence on the world? Do you have any influence on the thinking of others in your domain of expertise?

Your identity and reputation
Increasingly the web reflects who you are. It makes explicit your identity. How do you manage your identity on the web? If someone wanted to know about you and did a quick web search and browsed a few pages that referenced your work, what would be discovered about you?
Social Tools such as blogs, wikis, Skype, Twitter, Google Reader, YouTube, Flickr and Dopplr give you this power. Get connected - expand yourself! ?

E-mail David Gurteen at david.gurteen@gurteen.com; website: www.Gurteen.com