The announcement that The Government plans to teach Twitter and blogs in primary schools may have been a shock to many. But for Open Text, a leading provider of enterprise content management software, the bigger question is, are British businesses ready for a new generation of social computing-savvy workers? Last year Open Text committed $10 million to create a centre for Digital Media research at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford Institute in Ontario to spur innovation in 2.0 and digital media in a new generation of business leaders.
Craig Hepburn of Open Text commented “This announcement reinforces the fact that social content platforms such as Twitter and blogs are far from being just a fad. With the UK Government now looking to make it part of the national curriculum businesses should be following suit. Blogging is no longer only a social tool it’s a business tool and the fact that it’s about to be taught alongside Maths and Physics reinforces this.”
Last year Open Text conducted a customer survey that found that 57% of UK employers are seeing a growing trend of new graduate employees expecting to use social networking tools at work. Only 11% stated they didn’t see a trend. With a further 32% saying they weren’t seeing it currently, but expected to see an increase in demand for web 2.0 technologies in the near future.
“What this proves is that UK businesses need to start adapting their business processes and solutions to better suit the Twitter generation. Just like twenty years ago when no one believed we’d sit in front of screens all day typing, organisations need to understand that the future is going to be very different. What was initially seen as a past time for teenagers to share pictures and content is fast becoming the key to communication, whether it is business or social. We are seeing a new world of connected people and content where developing the social workplace and social marketplace will be key to success. What this represents is a fundamental change in the way we communicate, interact and learn and organisations need to be following Sir Jim Rose’s lead and start marching to the Twitter beat,” Craig Hepburn of Open Text concluded.
