Whatever you think of the #occupywallstreet protest going on since September 17 in New York, it is showing us the power of the democratization of technology in our new world order. And in this democratization lies huge opportunities and potential profits for small and mid-sized business (as well as those interested in social change, left, right or center).
In the previous century (a mere12 years ago) it would have been difficult for a protest like #occupywallstreet to obtain any traction or capture anyone's imagination. If the corporate media didn't pick it up, it didn't really exist. New technology has enabled first the capture of video and then the spread of that video of a NYPD executive macing a group of protesters. We don't even have to get into whether he violated policy, was justified or whatever. The fact is, the reason I know about this is because of social media and the Internet.
According to Nick Judd at techPresident,
After a pepper spray incident, Occupy Wall Street now gets a level of attention on Google somewhere between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
We Americans do love our torture videos, whether with electricity or chemicals!
This democratization of technology is also what permits many of the businesses we partner with to exist. It's what enabled us to move our business to the Cloud. We can do so much more with so much less in terms of both human resources and technology. This hasn't been great for the job market or print media, but it has been great for innovation and competition in business. Including competition between small businesses and their much larger counterparts.
A five-person firm no longer needs to seem like a small, niche player. Unless a business requires tremendous capitalization or physical space and plant, smaller firms are immediately more competitive because of the tools now available to them. Tools that were not available even five years ago.
These include planning tools, diagnostic tools, collaboration tools, distribution tools. It's a brave new world out there, and if your business is not at least paying attention, expect to get burned in the next couple of years by those who are.
Just ask Anthony Bologna. Even if he's not the officer in question, you can bet his life will never be the same.
Visit On-Site Technical Solutions for information on how you can move to Google Apps or other Cloud Computing applications. Call us for all of your network computing and business IT needs. We can also help with your data security and mobile computing. Follow us online below. Call or text me at 1-949-212-2168.
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