On a cloudy day... You can see forever...

On a "cloudy" day...You can see forever... My apologies to Barbara Streisand.

This past week was Collaboration Week NYC. They say that if you are the smartest person in a room, you are in the wrong room.

Well, I was in no danger of being in the wrong room at any point during the week. We had AMAZING meetings at Microsoft, Google, SAMSUNG, Polycom, and many other very generous NYC sponsors.

Collaboration is the process of two or more people or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. It is similar to cooperation or teamwork. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized group.

NYDLA.org ("NYED-LA") is all about global collaboration. Since 1983 Distance Learning morphed into DIGITAL Learning, which is now simply DIGITAL LIVING. I don't know when the term The Big Apple was first used, but there are many apples on a tree - but only one BIG apple.

I love pointing out that "You can find people reading the New York Times in LA, but no one can be found reading the LA Times in New York". And now, thanks to "the cloud" you can read the New York Times from anywhere in the world. Give me good WiFi and an iPad, laptop and smartphone and I'm a very happy camper.

There are 55M+ people living, learning, working and playing in the New York Megalopolis. As a kid I grew up in northern New Jersey looking at the New York City skyline, feeling like I was looking at Oz.

In today's globally connected world, work is not a place that you go - it's what you do.

But only a few years ago, work WAS a place that you went. You NEEDED to go into the city - because the office in the skyscraper was where the phone system was located.The office was where the filing cabinets were kept, the office was where the meeting rooms, the conference rooms, and typewriters were located.

Same for schools - you had to GO TO SCHOOL - because that is where the classrooms were located, and the blackboards, and the library. As for a college education, you HAD to travel to a college campus - or pay extra to live on campus. There was no alternative. And a college or university was judged by the quality and the size of its library.

Microsoft - 11 Times Square NYC

Today, a college campus is judged by the speed of its WiFi, and how people feel about the campus Starbucks is more important than the school library. And there is a very good chance that the student rec center or the gym on a college campus (or exercise center in a hotel) will have a Peloton with live and on-demand classes.

In my lifetime, everything changed. I was born in 1960. I clearly remember our family having ONE PHONE (rotary) in the kitchen, with a long cord. I witnessed the birth of The Internet (ARPANET) and the first car phones and fax machines. I was an early user of voicemail, and AOL, and email. I remember using a beeper and having to go find a payphone to check messages.

Telemedicine is changing healthcare on a global basis. There are people born in remote parts of the world who will now see a Physician for the very first time in their lives - all because of the cloud.

They say that the only thing constant in life - is change.

I am not so sure that is completely true. I do indeed believe that THE WAY that we collaborate - THE WAY that we live, learn, work and play certainly has changed, and will continue to morph and change over time.

But I feel that THE NEED for humans to collaborate, ah - that basic human need has remained constant.

I feel that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still very much in effect regardless of the technology of the day. Meeting people live and "in person" changes the brain chemistry, it changes the dynamic of the relationship. You need both live and virtual meetings for a healthy balance.

We just finished Collaboration Week NYC. Hundreds of us from the industry, meeting LIVE, in the greatest city in the world.

It was a busy week of live meetings, live presentations, shaking hands, exchanging business cards. Industry experts and end-user customers, all breaking bread and having "adult beverages" with colleagues, clients, vendors and sponsors.

Not virtual, but live.

We all gathered (live) in THE BIG APPLE, to collaborate and to learn from each other and to share best practices about TBLS (Technology Based Learning Systems) and the future of collaboration.

Ah yes. People. People, who need people...are the luckiest people...in the world.

Click Here: More Pictures from the week