THE NEW NORMAL:
"Are you preparing learners for the organizational ecosystem of today? Or are you helping them develop networks so that they're prepared for the organizational shifts that are coming?"
Those are but two of many burning questions posed in this danah boyd article (deftly disguised as speech notes) titled, "Networked Norms: How Tech Startups and Teen Practices Challenge Organizational Boundaries." The self-described "work-in-progress" provides significant anecdotal evidence from startup culture and teenage digital practices that suggests an impending doom of sorts for organizational culture as we currently know it.
That's not to say risk-taking whiz kids and saavy teenagers represent future work practices. Boyd readily offers that "teenagers are in a particular life-stage and cultural configuration that mean that they will 'outgrow' many of their practices."
But lest you think all this talk of interdependence and "networked society" is just a pipe dream, check out this passionate account of the "coffee hustle" from student-entrepreneur John Brennan (not of the CIA). The former Tufts student fondly recalls how, as a college sophomore, "Twitter introduced [him] to the Boston startup community, and ultimately, what it means to hustle." So much so that now -- just one year later -- he's working as analyst at Boston-based startup, Price Intelligently.
