Page 122 - 4188

120

Today, we use Microsoft Publisher and Adobe to make an electronic pdf
brochure that we store on the Web page or e-mail to interested parties.
We used PowerPoint in 1995, but we didn’t consider putting PowerPoint
on the Web. That’s standard operating procedure now. We scrambled

then to get, dupe and ship videotapes to clients so they could see how
they performed on the air. There was at best a one-day wait and at worst,
three to four days before a tape was sent by Federal Express to the

client. Today, the videotape is turned into streaming video and a link is
sent to the client for viewing on a protected space in the server the same
day.
In 1995, we carried heavy laptops and a pile of hardware and cable

to communicate. Today, we have feather-light laptops with WiFi cards
that provide instant Internet access in Starbucks. We also have
Blackberries, personal digital assistants and digital phones that send

messages to us in meetings, in cabs, on airplanes or in trains. In 1995,
the secretary-to-staff ratio was about one to three. Today, the secretary-
to-staff ratio is one to seven and climbing. There are plenty of empty

desks where assis- tants used to work. They will never be filled again
because it is easier and faster to do our own work, including such things
as booking travel. In 1995, there were still practitioners who resisted

computing. They were few, but they hung on grimly. Today, those folks
have long come in from the cold, or retired.
The Internet revolution was and is not the splashy multi-trillion
dollar bubble that blew up the American economy and plunged it into

years of rebuilding. It was a less-visible change in how we work that
infiltrated every office and cubicle and simplified processes throughout
all businesses, not just PR.

Looking forward, this is the way that the Internet revolution will
continue to unfold. News and information streams have converged.
Today, some of my colleagues read newspapers as easily on the Web as
they do on newsprint. We check breaking stories online first, perhaps

look at TV and read the follow-up in the morning paper, or not at all.
We check blogs now to see how respected writers and opinionated
columnists react to news or to see the news they break, for they are in

competition with traditional media. In 1995, the online diary was new
and no more than five people in the world had one. Today, hundreds of
thousands do.

Connectivity is the watchword now. If anything, we are too
connected. People yak on phones, e-mail, beep and buzz others