Oh My Gosh, I Think I'm a Geek!

Granted I spend a lot of time at the computer but until this morning I would never thought of myself in terms of geekdom.  But, as I walked into my office a little while ago, I realized that I have no less than five digital devices running on my desk at the same time.

I have my PC, which is always on.  I have a laptop running to keep track of the 196 blogs I subscribe to.  I have another laptop running, sending faxes for one of our sales divisions. My PDA is connected to its charger and my iPod is hooked up to the laptop, collecting podcasts for later listening.  Yikes!  Maybe I am a geek!

Last week I went on retreat to a Trappist monastery.  Surprisingly, though they don't watch television or listen to the radio, the monks do have access to the Internet for a few hours a day.  Guests, however, have to go cold turkey.  There's no WiFi at the abbey; not even a dial-up connection. I could only get my cell phone to work from a few places on the property, all of them requiring me to climb a hill.  The only place I could get more than one bar was on top of a 900 foot high mini-mountain.  It was a very peaceful week.  Of course, I had about 800 emails waiting for me when I got back to reality.

I mention my possible geekiness and my visit to Gethsemani to make a point.  When monks start surfing the web, I'd say it's pretty much taken over.  If the brothers are on line, you can bet your customers are too.  The question is, "What are we going to do about it?"  We've been posting recently on the various types of social media, and that series isn't finished yet.  Just when you think you've gotten a handle on what's available they (whoever "they" are) either improve something or introduce something entirely new.  The Internet and its users are definitely a moving target.

One thing is sure, computers, and especially the Internet, have changed the way we all do business and we've barely scratched the surface. The big winners are going to be the retailers (and manufacturers) who can get ahead of the  technology curve.  At MYOB, as your intrepid geek blogger I'll do my best to keep you up to date.

UPDATE.......10/18/2007 3:26 cdt

Thanks to Six Pixels of Separation for the link to this video.  It's only 5:28 long, but it's very interesting and ties into this post.  Enjoy.