I’ve always liked being a girl. You live longer and can blub freely at the Sound of Music. But the industry in which I work remains male dominated. And that demographic distorts how the industry views its innovations.
Take presence, a core component of unified communications (UC). To my mind, Susie Orbach needs to quit her riff on fat: Presence is a feminist issue.
I recently spoke at the U.K. Communications Management Association’s annual conference. In a two-day span, no less than 8 presentations advocating presence were made. I’ll single out John Mann, director of the Innovative Communications Alliance at Nortel EMEA. His live demonstration of presence was articulate, persuasive and technically flawless.
This went down awfully well. I looked across the sea of dark suits in the audience. Of course they love it, I thought, they’re (nearly) all men. It’s in their genes.
Don’t believe me? Talk to Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield, the eminent British neurobiologist. Her research proves that male and female brains are wired to process data differently. Just look at how quickly boys pick up spatial sensory tasks, while girls excel in cognitive tasks such as reading.
That supports my assertion that presence offers an immediacy of gratification that - right or wrong - plays directly to the sensory bias of men. And perhaps also their perception of social status.
Not least among the gender is my boss, whose email sig is reproduced below. Besides email, fax and fixed line, he’s contactable via two mobiles and no less than four IM systems.
Is this cool or reckless? And what if I and others don’t choose to follow suit - does that make us inferior employees or people?
And it’s one thing to have access to presence. It’s quite another thing to use it wisely. That’s something that must be learned. On this tricky matter, meanwhile, the vendors are silent. And employers large and small which Yankee Group has interviewed are increasingly bewildered, just as these tools come within their grasp.
Let’s be very careful about describing a linear progression of benefits according to degree of connectedness and presence. I submit that a bell curve is a far more accurate outcome, where hyper-presence ultimately attacks productivity.
The boys can count their toys all they like, but the girls - if you ask them - know what really matters.
Filed under: Anywhere Consumer, Anywhere Enterprise, Anywhere Network, Collaboration, Emerging Tech/Emerging Markets, Managed IT/Comms Services, Mobile Internet, Mobile and Data Apps, Uncategorized, Virtual Enterprise |
Jeffrey Breen
March 12th, 2008 - 6:30 pm
Hi Camille:
With all the energy he’s poured into his sig, Zeus still hasn’t updated his office phone and fax numbers — they changed to +1(617)598-7235 and -7435 back in August!
Maybe it’s too long to keep up to date… 
Cheers,
Jeffrey
Steve Hilton
March 13th, 2008 - 1:01 pm
The theory of presence/connectivity differences between genders is a wonderful one. It made me think… would women prefer less or more presence/connectivity than the two x-chromosome deficient homo sapiens in our midst?
Allow me to digress as I reflect on some life experiences. I shall consider this a personal therapy session without the US$20 co-pay. Consider it one of the many cost savings I grant our beleaguered US-based health care system.
Do males want more connectivity technology and value presence as a way to increase their desirability — whether altruistic or nefarious we needn’t say? As I type this blog entry, I’m sitting at my desk warmly joined by my two mobile devices, an iPod nano and two IM applications (AIM and Sametime). I like little gadgets that keep me in touch, although I’m clearly not an early-adopter of technology. Strangely many of my Yankee Group peers jeer at my unwillingness to replace my only TV (a 13-inch, 15 year-old Magnavox with rabbit ears) or purchase cable TV service.
On the other hand, do women want more connectivity technology and value presence as a way to increase their levels of intimacy — whether altruistic or nefarious we needn’t say? Back when I was young and naive I dated at least 3 women (maybe 4, max) who cast aspersions on my unwillingness to connect more deeply. I don’t know, it just seemed too difficult to pick up the phone and call. And why wasn’t a discussion about regression analysis equivalent to having a deep and meaningful relationship-oriented conversation? I know… how young and naive I was.
So which gender desires more connectivity, more presence? Does that one little x-chromosome difference make us irrevocably destined to disagree over the appropriate times to wear the color white; ballet performance versus poker night; and the intrinsic worth of online pornography?
I haven’t the foggiest, to be honest. However I can share a little Yankee Group survey data to hopefully guide our discussion.
Based on the Yankee Group 2007 Mobile Professional Blended Lifestyle Survey - SMB (US), men and women employees have similar connectivity desires in 8 work-based locations (office, home office, customers’ offices, hotel, airport, airplane, coffee shops/restaurants and commuting to work). The largest difference is 8 percentage points — in that particular case women prefer more connectivity than men while working in customers’ offices. In most other work-based locations, there’s significally insignificant difference.
Granted, this is only one survey and it’s based on US employees, but it seems to suggest that men do not desire more connectivity than women. In fact, maybe we aren’t all that different when it comes to the desire for connectivity. Maybe the difference is the value we derive from having access to connectivity.
Stay tuned in 2Q2008 when Yankee Group has similar connectivity data on UK employees. We shall see if employees in the land of King Arthur and Guinevere have more enlightened thoughts about connectivity.
John Mann
March 17th, 2008 - 5:23 pm
Camille
Many thanks for your kind description of my rather hurried presentation at CMA.
I don’t think I gave a demonstration as such, I did talk to a couple of applications of presence I have seen used by my customers.
I do hope you haven’t confused me with the bloke from Cisco!
Rgds
John
