Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity

Chapter 22. The Future is Visible Now!: Seeds of a Real Revolution in Meetings

Science fiction author William Gibson wrote in Snowcrash, an iconic novel about virtual reality, that "the future is here now, it's just not evenly distributed." If you look at what we consider breakthrough technological developments, like the helicopter, Internet, or computer chips, they all have long histories of developments that foreshadowed their breakthrough into everyday use.

Visualization has a long and rich history. Most of the ideas I've shared have been used by architects, designers, teachers, and engineers in one form or another for centuries. In fact, my claim that graphic language is natural and built into our very gestures and bodies argues for re-accessing what is indeed a very old way of communicating.

AN ANALOG-DIGITAL WORLD

Here I am digitally photographing a video image showing on my personal computer of hand-drawn charts and templates. These different worlds amplify each other if you explore the connections.

We Live in an Information Age

What is new is the explosion of electronic media and the emergence of a society based on the creation and sharing of information in ever-increasing volumes. Digital tools amplify and transform communications in ways that we are only beginning to discover. But I believe the future is already here, and can be discerned. I don't pretend to predict how these ...