With GDPR and privacy issues becoming public concerns, I think organizations have put a lot of thought on data: who can access, where it is located, what it contains?

For instance, some tools are forbidden in companies due to privacy concerns or possible security issues. On the other hand, some tools have tailored version where data doesn’t leave servers inside an organization. This is to give full control where data is physically located and who can access to data.

Another option may be data is restricted not to leave EU, because laws regarding to privacy and IPR, for instance, are different outside EU. These all can give quite a bit headache for IT department, but also individual workers. You may be allowed to use your company Google Drive, but your personal Google Drive can be banned, because the server maybe outside EU.

For brand image, many companies encourage their employees to be active in social media. Interesting question is what happens when an employee critisizes a company in social media? Or what if an employee behaves in a non-acceptable manner in social media? Does company still encourage to be active?

I am a leader in expert organization. My job involves talent management, goal setting, accepting purchases, making strategy, hiring people, etc. Pretty much everything what blue-collar workers nowadays do! We have in-house-tailored versions of software for purchases and invoices, work time allocation, travel, talent management etc. In my feeling, recent software versions have got influences from social media. This maybe good thing for user interfaces, but sometimes understanding software processes/functionalities is difficult. Everything is inter-dependent.

In joint work we use a lot of collaborative software like Trello, Miro, Slack, or similar tools. During recent years, MS Teams has taken place and replaced a great variety of other software. I believe I have Teams account for at least ten external organizations. Selection of MS Office 365 apps has grown a lot; and those apps have multiple apps inside.

My employer encourages the use of ChatGPT. We mainly use free version that I feel is marginally useful. I complained about Chat GPT in the other assignment already (https://blogi.savonia.fi/maakarit/digi-society/). This situation is likely to improve quickly and I am looking forward to using AI for serious work. I have learnt MS Teams for instance will soon get AI features to compose e.g. meeting memos.

We and our stakeholders use Doodle frequently. I am surprised MS Outlook or Teams don’t offer anything handier for the purpose of finding meeting times. Referring to the growing number of Teams apps, fixing a meeting time is surprising painful.

Facebook I mostly use for personal purposes, but sometimes contribute to employer’s postings. LinkedIn is quite interesting  It has quite high level leaders listing their CV details. I think the reputation must be good enabling those leaders to do so.

Mobiilivarmenne (in Finland) is interesting question will it fly? Our Finnish bank verification is a success story. Who knew that private id system would become de facto standard everyone uses? I am happy our state was slow enough in own system development and humble enough not to enforce own different solution.

WhatsApp we use at workplace as well as personally. It is quite handy to make group for project or travelling group. YouTube is mostly for my personal use. In some cases it can of course be used for training. Quite a lot adequate info can be found in Youtube.

Self evaluation

In think the Digital Competence Test in https://digital-competence.eu/ in another exercise (https://blogi.savonia.fi/maakarit/digi-citizen/) was a very good eye-opener. Understanding all the tools and their aspects to privacy, security etc. is challenging, because everything is connected. For instance, an integrated login is offered by e.g. Apple or Google. This is of course very handy, but also connects together a large bunch of apps from different software providers. I personally have concerns here, but often I am too lazy to register separately.

Availability of digital tools is a fuzzy cloud of tempting opportunities. Some people (maybe engineers?) believe you can do all with Excel! Sometimes I have thinking do you really need tens of different software solutions to attach sticky notes on digital space? I think this gives a hint that interaction between humans is still somewhat difficult to arrange in convenient way. Workshopping, idea collection, and similar meetings suffer from not having physical face-to-face presence. A bunch of ‘sticky-notes-software’ has appear to fulfil this gap.

Whereas word-processing and spreadsheets are very mature technology, the rest of digital tools is boiling. We still write emails, but how long? Will other brief-and-instant messaging systems eventually take over? What are roles of AI and speech processing in digital communication? And what happens with user interfaces? You can already buy a device reading you brain signal and connect it to user interfaces (https://www.rewireme.com/brain-insight/mental-wi-fi-advancing-technology-brain-controlled-devices/).

Pic by Honkiat https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/brain-controlled-gadgets/

I earlier claimed many of company tools have started to appear social media tools. For me, it looks that power of social media is so big that everything bends in that direction. Also, it seems they can be use in various ways.

This discussion doesn’t directly relate to our digital capabilities, but there is, however, a connection to our capabilities. As getting older, I see how much easier have become. Instead of visiting a physical shop, you can order virtually anything. Instead of visiting friends you can send them messages or have an online meeting. I know, I should use less social media and do more physical exercise. Can we stay digitally capable if our physical capabilities go down?