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5th seminar "development & Management"

Palma de Mallorca, October 29-30, 2009

"my life, my job and the digital society"

Marc Cortés – Mr. Cortes is Executive Director of consulting company of Roca&Salvatella, the objective of which is to help people and organizations to adapt to the increasing capabilities of web 2.0, to learn more about social networks and to adjust their management practices accordingly in the fields of marketing, knowledge management and communications. In addition to his regular consulting activities through his firm, Mr. Cortes lectures on e-marketing practices and social media at the ESADE Business School.

Download author's pdf presentation (Spanish language)

We live today in a wide open, digital society where everything is closely connected, where things change more rapidly every day. Our grand-parents saw the birth and rise of vinyl discs, and our parents that of audio cassettes.

While at that time both devices were considered state-of-the-art technologies, some years later they had already become very commonplace for us, turning into the ordinary tools of our lives.

The same is happening for our children, with blogs, Google, Tweeter and other social networking tools having become all but ordinary tools – not at all high tech to our children’s generation. They are used to utilizing them because they were born or so. Mr. Cortes focused on how rapidly those techniques developed and the accelerating pace of their current development.

He then taught us about what Zygmunt Bauman calls "liquid times". This Polish born sociologist and philosopher has published many books and over a hundred articles addressing many themes, among which are globalization, modernity and morality. "Liquid Modernity" is Bauman's term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the "solid" modernity that preceded it. According to Bauman, the passage from "solid" to "liquid" modernity has created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits, confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before encountered. Social relationships have become more and more difficult to define and comprehend, while progress has switched from the promise of universal happiness for mankind to the threat of relentless and inexorable change.

Anyway, we now know what the future holds, maybe. Rules of social relationships have changed dramatically. In less than a century we have switched from the village café to web-based massive social networks.

More and more people are connected to the Internet; every month one billions videos are being watched on Youtube; in the US, 70% of all video content is on the Internet.

Of course, you may find online the worst as well as the best, the latter including professional networks, communities for people having a life-changing condition, etc.

Finally, Mr. Cortes gave us an overview of part of the possibilities offered by the Internet, such as the research tools offered by Google, blogs and web feed formats (RSS).

Download author's pdf presentation (Spanish language)

Intesting links

Roca&Salvatella - Net Strategies
Interview with Zygmunt Bauman

Sessions

Opening Genuine Participation Processes in the Organizations - by Eugenio Moliní
Learning Challenges - by Magí Almirall
My Life, My Job and the Digital Society - by Marc Cortés
Leadership and Commitment - Together, Building the Future - by Carlos Sánchez

Special thanks

View event's photos on Flickr