Taking Global Connectedness for Granted

I had a quick lesson last night in how much my perspective has changed over the past 2+ years since we launched our internal online community. I was preparing to deliver a presentation remotely (via conference call and slide share) about our online community for a company meeting in Shanghai and the only remarkable thing about it to me was the time zone differential. Here's what I posted on Facebook about it:

Ted Hopton is ready for his presentation (remotely) to the meeting in Shanghai tomorrow morning, which is, of course, tonight on the East coast.

The comments I got from friends about my status message were all wishing me luck on the presentation -- kind thoughts, to be sure, but not what I was expecting. It must have sounded like a big deal for me to be doing this

For me, it was not an unusual thing to be delivering a presentation from home to a group in Asia. It simply amused me that I was presenting tomorrow by speaking tonight. I just take it for granted that my company is connected all around the globe.

But a few years ago, it would indeed have been a very big deal, now that I think about it. Our community has in so many ways bridged distances that my mindset has changed. Of course I am connected with colleagues in Shanghai -- isn't everybody? :-)

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