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Archive for August, 2009

Face-to-Face v the Web from Gerry McGovern

Monday, August 31st, 2009

One of the industry maxims that pervades our information space is the one that face-to-face is always a superior communication channel to the cold hard interface of a web browser. And it makes sense, with the vast majority of any message being non-verbal we’re always going to get more out of dealing with a human being than plugging away on some keyboard like a frantic lunatic. The channel richness argument has been espoused in so many different directions that we’re simply not used to questioning it…

Gerry McGovern poses a very good argument based on real life experiences in his recent article When online is better than face-to-face. In fact, as any good expert will tell any layman about anything important – the answer is it depends. Sometimes face-to-face is better, and sometimes its the computer interface.

In Gerry’s example, he urgently needed to fly his family across the country and their tickets hadn’t been processed so how were they going to make it? Repeated requests to the human-interface airline employees failed to obtain any tickets – they were told none could be obtained. Then Gerry got online and purchased the tickets via the Web in a round-a-bout way and at some expense, but the tickets were obtained. He asks, which was better in that context? The human interface, or the web interface?

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About the Author

Steven Clark Steven Clark - the stand up guy on this site

My name is Steven Clark (aka nortypig) and my passions are business, web development, photography and writing. My current CV [PDF 775KB] is available for download. Currently I'm completing my 2 final units of a post-graduate university degree of MBA (Journalism and Media Studies) at the University of Tasmania.

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My fine art photography is available online at Steven Clark Studio. You may also enjoy my photo blog Walk a Mile in my Shoes.

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Currently Reading

Light Science and Magic by Hunter, Biver and Fuqua - cover

The time has come for me to get more involved in upping my technical photography skills if I hope to embark on a Master of Fine Art and Design (Photography) next year. To that end my first book is the highly recommended Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (Third Edition) by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua. What really differentiates this book is the comprehensive set of exercises and the detailed explanation of the underlying science of light in the real world that encompasses the reader's journey.