Joe Helgert is a trendy guy. The professor of Communications at Grand Valley State University outlines five major changes affecting business, politics and average consumers.
Helgert, who worked for the Motorola Corporation for five years before joining the faculty at GVSU in 1989, says the first of five general trends in telecommunications has to do with the convergence of media, including print, broadcast, telephone, and computer.
About 10 to 20 years ago these forms of communication were completely separate, and now the boundaries are becoming more blurred, Helgert says.
A second, related trend, according to Helgert, is the search for standards with the new forms of communication technology. He explains that, just as there was a struggle to standardize video with VHS or Beta formats, a standard for broadcasting high definition television (HDTV) is of vital importance in the business and political arenas.
HDTV is considered to be in the national interest because of its relationship to the semi-conductor industry, explains Helgert, who saw HDTV in Japan when he was working there in 1987. The Japanese have had the technology for years but they couldn't set the standard. The U.S. said no to Japan's HDTV format, and thank God or we would have lost our semi-conductor industry.
Helgert said working on legislation about HDTV standards was the number one priority for Motorola when he worked there from 1983-88.
Other trends Helgert points out include the rapid rate of mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications industry, especially between telephone and cable companies. That, accompanied by a move from hard wired to digital and wireless communication, means big changes for everyone at work and at home. He points to Japan as an indication of where the United States might be five years from now. There, everyone has a cell phone, from business executives to school kids. Helgert admits he is concerned that the added technology could limit people's social skills and abilities for face-to-face interactions. He says maintaining those skills will be everyone's responsibility.
You want to use these technological tools to increase productivity, but you have to structure personal face-to-face communication with employees, unions, customers and so on, Helgert advises. No company sells face-to-face communications; lots of them sell computers and cell phones and other forms of technological communication.
