I’ve written two pages of background info to provide Tom with some context. They outline the jobs I was doing in 1981 and 2011 and the type of organisations I was working for; and also the main changes in communications I perceived between the two periods. The latter was an interesting list of the following:
1981 | 2011 |
The challenge was to manage paper | The challenge was to manage email |
Support staff assisted professionals | No support staff – Professionals support themselves |
You needed paper and a pen | You needed a laptop, desktop and/or a handheld |
Turnaround expectations were several days | Turnaround expectations were a few hours |
The phone was tied to the desk | The phone was mobile and multipurpose providing a tighter coupling between voice and written communications. |
Overland mail used for most things | Many types of communications – magazines, newsletters and marketing material – had moved into web sites or email |
Presentation technologies used were either photographic slides or overhead acetates | Slides and acetates had disappeared. Presentation technology was presentation software such as Powerpoint |
Conference calls generally unknown. Work got done by face-to-face meetings or by shipping paper around and getting comments back on paper or by phone. | Conference calls a major plank of business communications |
To be connected to like-minded individuals, you had to join a group and either attend face-to-face meetings or receive materials through the overland mail. | To be connected to like-minded individuals, you identified an appropriate group over the net and used web-based support systems. |
Inter-continental communication took place by letter or one-to-one phone calls between distinct individuals and groups with their own agendas. | Business had gone global and was conducted by interlinked teams working together across continents. Conference/video calls demanded that many participants had to join communications at unsocial hours. Email was the glue bonding the participants together. |
I have also completed the basic numerical analysis and produced the following graphs:
- % of communications received in each of 24 categories, 1981 vs 2011
- % received on each individual day of the week, 1981 vs 2011
- Absolute numbers of hardcopy items received by category, 1981 vs 2011
- Average number of emails sent on each day of the week, 2011 only (no 1981 data)
- % emails with attachments received by category, 2011 only
- % replied to, 1981 vs 2011
- % forwarded, 1981 vs 2011
- Number of different senders by category, 2011 only (no 1981 data)
- % work related, 1981 vs 2011