“Software products and services simply haven’t yet been ideal for improving communication patterns.”
The part cynic in means says, “Hell ya!” however the pragmatist in me kind of wonders what they are smoking. I guess the word ideal gives them a whole hell a lot of room to wiggle but seriously, “What?”
I could just as easily say Burton research services simply haven’t yet been ideal for me. What the hell does ideal mean anyway? Pretty much everything in this world is not ideal. Unless of course you are Bill Gates then it doesn’t matter. I guess the only thing not ideail for him is the fact he isn’t going to live forever. But I’m sure he’ll cure himself of that disease soon enough.
You know I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, “The current U.S. diplomatic approach has not been ideal for improving communication patterns with other countries.”
If I had to guess, I’d say that Burton is suggesting that while software products may be improving communication patterns (by increasing the sheer volume), they still have a long way to go.
Too much email. Too many feeds. Too many blog entries. Too much entertainment.
Too much haystack and not enough needle.
Not enough attention.
I suppose “ideal” would be a condition where by you would receive exactly the amount of communication that you could read, want or need. Since everyone has different criteria for evaluating that “right amount,” it’s difficult for software designers to design communication tools effectively. A noble approach, however, has been to produce things that are incredibly simple to tweak and refine.
Smart folders/playlists/inboxes that aggregate content based on low level metadata come to mind.
If that’s what their trying to say, they should just say that.
If you rant is actually focused on the futility of idealism, I’m afraid that I’m not in an ideal position to rant back.