There is much discussion recently about the “real time” web and how businesses need to change everything they’re doing to retain online relevance in the eyes of prospects, journalists, and customers. News flash – the web always has been “real-time”.
 With the emergence of new systems such as Twitter, FriendFeed, and smarter, more capable mobile devices, and the rapid embrace of faster information-sharing through improved standards and integration, today’s form of “real-time” is simply “realer”; it’s a faster, arguably better web because we have increased the capacity to broadcast and we've shortened the time-to-awareness.
On October 24, 1861, the transcontinental telegraph system was completed. It was the beginning of the end of the Pony Express. I suspect the first users of the telegraph system were euphoric; finally – they had real-time communications coast-to-coast. An amazing innovation by itself, but simply an evolution in the long and seemingly endless advance toward real-time communications.
What Is Responsible For This Change?
It doesn’t require a lot of analysis to determine that the improvement in pervasive communications (wireless) and device capabilities are as much the cause for this change, as applications such as Twitter and Facebook. Like many evolutionary trends, no single idea or technology is responsible for the improved experience industry pundits are calling the real-time web.
Like most evolutionary processes, dozens or perhaps hundreds of subtle advances have paved the way for faster web communications. Listing all the little advances that industry experts lump into one proclamation of a new, and revolutionary way of doing business on the web, is a waste of space and energy. If you want the complete list, drop me a note and I’ll document the tip of the iceberg for you. In the meantime (if you have hours with nothing better to do), take a stroll through LatestWebInnovations.com and look under the covers of each product – you’ll find a number of standards, services, and interoperability technologies which collectively can be credited for the new “real-time” web.
There’s no doubt that people want a shortened time-to-awareness; we all seem to be embracing the idea of near-instantaneous or [seemingly] instant awareness of new information. When Ted Turner proposed a “real-time” [all] news channel in 1980, experts gave the idea a slim shot of success. But he understood the human condition far better than anyone else – we want news; we want data; we want it all, and we need it now.
What is the Business Impact of this Change?
At the risk of sounding like I have my head in the sand, nothing. Okay, well… everything. Let me explain.
In the early 1900’s, businesses that didn’t immediately adopt the telephone as a faster, better, real-time communications infrastructure, were less likely to succeed than those which adopted this new technology quickly and with purpose. The telephone was a significant evolutionary step. Twitter; maybe not so much. Sales people that continued to ride by train, were clearly out-gunned by those that took to the air using the first commercial airlines. Facebook; again, not a significant evolutionary step that would allow one company to dominate all others who risked not using it.
More important in the quest to remain competitive; to hold on to (or gain) market share – seemingly insignificant ideas can be employed with purpose to achieve business objectives. So, while new ways to communicate impact everything about a business, the central business objective (i.e., the reason you earn revenue) is unchanged. Instead of asking -
How should we revamp our web strategy to accommodate Twitter?
… you should be asking questions such as -
- With the ability to shorten time-to-awareness, how can we use that as a business advantage?
- How can this improve our internal communications?
- How can this help our support process?
- How will our competitors use this capability?
- Can we leverage this to better understand what our customers want?
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