Making nerds normal

Flemish IT specialist claims we’re about halfway through the digital revolution

In his shiny suit and trendy glasses, Peter Hinssen owns the stage. With a PowerPoint backdrop of constantly changing images, he holds the audience captive for well over an hour. Afterwards, the crowd gathers around him, pushing business cards into his hand and asking him to autograph his newest book.

The positive reception is just as unexpected as the laughter, for Hinssen (pictured) is no comedian or media personality, he's a Flemish internet technology (IT) lecturer and self-professed nerd. Not to mention that his message is pretty confrontational: He tells a room full of IT professionals that their jobs as they know them are over.

IT in its current incarnation is dead. Welcome to the New Normal.

Also the title of his new book, his second, the New Normal is all about digital elements in our daily lives, from online banking to standard communication. Throughout The New Normal: Explore the Limits of the Digital World are references to how society has changed through technology. For example, it is now normal that Facebook being down for two hours earlier this year made headline news on CNN. It is now normal that children often understand technology better than adults. And it is normal that more and more people come home from work and, instead of turning on the TV, go online.

With these changes are questions, assumptions and expectations, which Hinssen tackles in his book and his seminar, both in English. The jokes are far funnier in person, but the book repeatedly makes its point, especially with regard to IT departments.

"Most companies have massive terabytes of storage capacity, back up millions of emails every night and have huge archives of digital content," he writes. "Yet staff can hardly locate anything." It's a common scenario, but solving it is still difficult.

"Management feels that since the issue is about information, is should be handled by the Information Technology people. Although IT people supply information systems, they think that Management should be responsible for the information being handled and used properly. In the New Normal, our information behaviour adapts faster than we can implement information systems."

Although Hinssen has a profound knowledge of the current situation, he doesn't claim to have all the solutions. He laughs at that, in fact, during his presentation a few weeks ago at The Free University of Brussels (ULB). "Technologists make the worst predictions!" he exclaims before rattling off a list of amusing references: "Bill Gates said 640k ought to be enough for anybody. The IBM chairman said there is a world market for maybe five computers. The head of Digital Equipment thought there would be no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

He's also quick to point out that we're only halfway into the New Normal and tries to define the various limits at play. He gets pretty technical, showcasing his Master's degrees in Telecommunications and Electronic Engineering.

"Limits are used to put today's digital practices into perspective by comparing them to yesterday and projecting them into tomorrow," he says. "For instance, the limit of length is zero." Before he loses the audience, he applies the idea to a real-life example.

"Twenty years ago I wrote a 140-page thesis, now I write a 140-character tweet." Heads nod in understanding. "However, the limit of depth is infinite. I can now Google and Wikipedia any topic, so I can become an expert on most topics. Just look at how people go to the doctor armed with information these days."

While the crowd is in constant agreement, they still don't necessarily understand where they are on the scale of digital transformation. "I often lecture at the London Business School, and my audience is filled with 50- to 60-year-old senior executives - people who know their business well and are extremely smart but who are not necessarily aware of the digital transition taking place. They are all digital immigrants."

He defines the term "digital immigrants" in his book. "Most of us are still digital immigrants, but we're entering a world where analogue is really the exception." He has a simple test to distinguish between a digital immigrant and a digital native. "I put a camera on a table and ask what it is. If he says ‘digital camera', he's a digital immigrant. If he says simply ‘camera', he is a digital native. When digital becomes the norm, the adjective ‘digital' loses its descriptive meaning. The fact we still continue to use the word is an indicator we're still only halfway through the journey towards the New Normal."