Okay it’s rough to criticise the work of Alvin Toffler, nearly 40 years after he published ‘Future Shock‘. But while Toffler’s key premise – that the shift from an industrial age to a post-industrial, highly technology-mediated society would leave us all feeling rather disconnected and over stressed – may have some merit in terms of information overload, it’s perhaps not quite as stressful and certainly a more connected existence we have been living in technologically developed societies since the early 1990s. With mass adoption of mobile communications devices and the development of graphical browsers for the World Wide Web we have steadily been forging and reinforcing links between ourselves, and expecting others to always be available, for help to be at hand, and for new connections to be created daily, on the basis of shared interest or a common goal.

So while Toffler may have got the notion of technological expansion right, there are serious flaws in his sense that we’d all be rather unhappy about it. In fact, as more contexts for communication and collaboration emerge, the ‘happiness’ of users of digital media tends to grow. Indeed if anyone is feeling stressed and disconnected it is those who lack either the literacy or the infrastructure to participate.

It is the notion of collaboratively creating tools and services, content and contexts for future users of technology which is contributing to that sense of harmony with emergent media. Unsheffield‘s ‘Future Users? Cool Technology?’ theme is a useful platform for imagining ways to connect with and engage users who otherwise struggle to be part of the Web 2.0 generation. As Helen Milner has noted, once you provide users with a reason to participate, the enthusiasm and empowerment they feel is palpable. Any event which is collectively promoting ease of access and participation from these future users with technologies and content they find useful and/or appealing has got to be a good thing.

I guess, though, the thing that interests me the most about emergent media is perhaps counter-intuitive to most of us geeks. Cool technology, as the folks behind Unsheffield have defined it, is stuff that’s interesting and useful, but also capitalises on stuff that’s already there. I’d like to go further than that and propose that cool technology is that which is so natural and intuitive and so embedded in our lives that it ceases to be technology and just becomes a context for engagement. And the thing about ‘old media’ – broadcasting, telecommunications and even print production – is that it’s already got to the stage where it’s not thought of as ‘technology’ as such. People don’t regard them as devices. They think of them as essentials. I think as tech consultants and geeks we should begin to look back to old media and see how we can either emulate, appropriate and/or mobilise them to deliver cool technology more effectively. In fact I hope at Unsheffield there may well be a few sessions on taking interactive media into previously non-interactive, or limited-interaction spaces. I also think that with the portability and complexity of mobile phones we’re going to start to rediscover physical spaces, and to use cool technology to enhance the experience of (offline) geographical presence. (Gosh that sounds so contrived, but in a virtual reality age we have to be specific about what spaces we’re talking about.)

I’m looking forward to participating in some way in Unsheffield and hope that the Amplified network can help promote some of the ideas and action happening at the event. Because I believe that in contexts like barcamps and structured conversations, we can deliver a digital Britain that sustains our wellbeing as well as providing us with a competitive edge. In short, I believe that events like Unsheffield can avoid a Future Shock, and instead provide a revitalised sense of community.

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