Back to School - Making Progress

As my daughter is back in school it has made me think about how the progress of learning and technology map to one another. In the world of school, each year our kids head back in September to the place of learning. Each September they "graduate" to the next grade level in school and start to learn more new things and more complex items regarding subjects they have already learned a base knowledge of. What would happen if each year our kids headed back to school and simply repeated the same year over and over again for 12 years. One thing is for sure is that they'd be able to get done with their Math Facts in about 4 seconds and they could add 4+5 amazingly well. But what about algebra, geometry, chemistry, world history, etc. Our kids would never get a chance to learn more and grow.

So why is it that once we deploy a technology we think we're set for life? Why is it that we're not looking foward to advancing the technology we just deployed. Shouldn't we be "heading back to school in September" looking at new classes to take to better our existing technology? In the world of Archiving, products change constantly and most companies new/updated releases close to once a year. Just because you picked "the best" platform 3 years ago, doesn't mean it's the best platform today.

In today's world, our kid's can't repeat the same grade over and over again thanks to our politicians and the whole "no child left behind act", so don't be that one kid left behind in your business leaving your archive technology behind.

Technology - Has it bettered your life?

I typically don't write too much about what is going on in my personal life. However, I wanted to touch on something that happened this past week. For those that know me well, they know my daughter is diabetic. She was diagnosed as Type I Diabetic shortly after her 5th birthday. What this means is that she is insulin dependent and has been receiving between 6-10 shots of insulin a day since. She's an amazing person and has handled this so well I'm nothing short of amazed and proud of her.

Through the amazing power of Disney (yes, I'm still talking about medical innovation here :), our daughter learned from her Grandma that Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers was recently diagnosed and on a newer diabetes pump called the OmniPod, by Insulet. It is a self contained pump that is WIRELESS and TUBELESS! Having experienced the Jonas Brothers live in concert along with Hanna Montana (her first concert, 20k screaming kids, her crazy dad took her) it was clear that these were some of the first people in her life that she was in awe of. Anything the Jonas Brothers thought was cool, certainly she thought it was cool too.

After much research by myself and my wife, On Friday July 25th 2008, technology changed our daughter's life. NO MORE SHOTS!!!! She programs in her insulin dose into a wireless remote and it sends the dosage requirements to the pod and a few seconds later, her dose is done. It has already changed her life and it's only been 3 days.

This really got me thinking, how has and how does technology make our lives better every day? Isn't that its purpose? We advance technology to make our lives and the lives around us better. So when you're contemplating new technology, make sure you ask yourself "is this going to make my life better?" If the answer is no, maybe you should be buying something that will. Or better yet, ask yourself if your current technology is making your life better. If it's not, maybe it's time to find some that will.