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OCNCNAL •OOKaiNDINC CO.
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t.uALITT COWTWOC MAWK
00'
BY LON B. GREGORY
The
Decade of
Achievement
i
As computers took their place in our society in the "5Us and dOs, people learned that the machines possessed no real "magic" and would not replace human labor. Gradually, everyone has come to accept the truth in that cliche on the poster in the computer room that says in effect, "Computer results are only as good as the original material fed in."
Similarly, we have consistently held that A-V hardware is only as good as the software used in it . . . and precious little of today's gadgetry had good material used in it.
A recent survey of 300 major U.S. corporations by Michael Johns .Associates verifies our belief that the audiovisual hardware boom of the 1960s is great in theory, but sadly short of real achievement in action.
"The biggest single complaint we heard," says Michael St. John, president of the surveying firm, "was that expensive A-V equipment and most packaged programs are gathering dust on shelves because they are lacking in relevance and are too general to have custom application."
The survey indicates that a key problem is the lack of motivation contained in much of the software presently available. This is brought about by several factors, including: ( 1 ) decentralization causing headquarter-conceived programs to be presented by relatively unintiated instructors to people who normally balk at anything from headquarters anyway; (2) too great an abundance of programs conceived in ivory towers that do not relate to existing problems in the field; and (.^ ) too great an adherence to outdated tools of the past like tours, brochures and deadly "inspirational" talks by corporate executives.
The end result of all this, says St. John, is high employment turnover, or at best, employees in the field "turned off" by a constant bambardment of material that simply isn't relevant. There is no meaningful motivation!
"What is needed," insists St. John, "are structured programs that do not rely on the ability of an individual instructor that can be regionalized to meet the needs of different areas and deal with the basic problems within a company's various divisions."
We agree. But we also believe that the picture is not quite as bleak as St. John seems to paint it. We have seen too many recent examples of really good software. We know too many people working on really good programming for all facets of corporate use.
We know the hardware is here. We know that the knowledge to create meaningful programming is available, if not fully utilized. A marriage of the proper software to the existing hardware is vital and wc believe, presently nearing the altar.
We firmly believe (as we stated last month) that the 1970s will be the decade in which the dog again begins wagging the tail. By the end of this decade, matured A-V "pros" will be dictating hardware requirements to fit the specific needs of their software that works . . . and successfully motivates.
It has to . . . and will . . . happen. Otherwise. American business will be unable to maintain the pace it has set during the past quarter century. The emerging professional audiovisual men u/// provide the needed answers.
^ -i^lJ^,^^^-*^^
JANUARY, 1971