January 2001

"Signs" of the Times

by Jan Michels
WSBA Executive Director
janm@wsba.org

Completing the millennium feels like a relief. We can get on with the future, rather than self-consciously reflect and celebrate the passage of the 20th century.

For navigating into the future, we have new road signs for the next century! The signs will help us find our way. Some words that used to be terms of art have made their way into common vocabulary and will be helpful guides on our journey into the future.

Picture digital. Picture the speed of light. Picture sound and texture traveling simultaneously to the 100 million receptors spaced throughout the universe. "Dot-com" has become common vocabulary to describe start-up ventures, information-brokering and niche markets. Moving on guts and energy, they're experimenting and pushing the edges of how we think about work, profit, economics and lifestyle — and they're here to stay, but approach with caution.

"Bandwidth" is our stop sign. The pipeline through which data flows can be so narrow that it is restrictive. Conversely, bandwidths can be so huge that data rushes through like the slipstreams of a jet.

The ancient Japanese concept of "yin and yang," opposing forces seeking reconciliation, has acquired new fashionable western words: interstatia, nexus and matrix. The concepts of interstatial parts, points of intersection and non-linear management behind the new words constitute a road-sign warning that ideas no longer exist in isolation, and that a whole is more than the sum of its parts. Ideas need balance.

It used to be that having all kinds of information made you smart. But information is now everywhere, and what makes us "smart" is using our intuition, experience and judgment to turn information into usable knowledge. Smart people learn how to recognize, market and capitalize on their knowledge. The information road sign points to the need to work at a higher level than mere information processing, and to find direction by processing knowledge.

"Information glut" is the warning sign that says we've input too much data without turning the data into useful knowledge. We're data conflicted! Each month I get 30 state bar journals, various ABA mailings, countless marketing packets and many technology magazines. I force myself through them, afraid of missing something, but much of the information takes me nowhere. The road sign warns me that to support my current goals, I need to screen out what I can't turn to knowledge.

"Danger." This sign warns us that we have a world of choices. Finding what we want can become an intellectually challenging game. The fascination of knowing that information we used to pay for is now readily available on the Internet can be addictive. But this road sign can also be read to say, "slow down." Use only what you need to do your work or improve your life.

So where do the signs point? My husband — a historian and philosopher by preference and education, a technologist by profession — charges me with "artifact behavior" when my harder/faster/longer work syndrome prevails over "smarter" and more currently relevant techniques. We all have artifact habits that were formed and worked well in the primarily industrial, assembly-line age of the 20th century. Things no longer develop in a linear fashion; hard work and dependable habits don't always suffice. We need to develop a textured understanding of the information age. These road signs will help guide us to this new frontier. They will direct us to the future and tell us what we need to do to adapt to this new world of experience in the 21st century. See you on the journey!