Are we THAT different?

Read Computer Sweden column by Joakim de Leeuw - innovation manager at SEB in Sweden.

Reflections:

Digital natives and digital immigrants are said to be virtually different races. As a rapidly growing proportion of customers and employees are born into the digital world it is important to understand the possibly even fundamental difference.

How different are we? 

It is true that us immigrants have a need for metaphoras to make the digital world more tangible. We store documents in files in digital cupboards. If the document is needed in several places we copy it and store in several files. This does not make sense according to the natives - the information is all over the place - just tag it and search!

Another metaphor is the e-mail - a lettermetaphor for communicating. This does not make sense according to the natives - do not send - publish instead!

There are many more - but this is not new of course - the first car was called a horseless waggon, e-banks were designed as bank branches etc. And maybe it is just the necessary way to make the immigrants move on.

May be we are that different - and it is not a question of technology - but of culture..