REDMOND -- Computers and the Internet are still a wonder to manyadults, but to teen-agers, they're simply a part of life. And so theworld's largest software maker is turning to a pair of teens to tellit how to run the company.
Michael Furdyk, 17, and Jennifer Corriero, 19, are the newestconsultants at Microsoft Corp. Of course, teen-age wunderkinder arenothing new in the high-technology industry this summer, many techfirms will play host to whiz kids who can build databases and writefunky programs for Web sites.
But Furdyk and Corriero are different. This isn't just anothercollege internship program. Their generation is growing up with theInternet, and Microsoft believes they will integrate this new mediumthroughout their lives.
The company envisions a generation of people who are nearlyalways connected to the Internet, either through a PC at work orhome, or via a wireless device everywhere else. So, in anexceedingly rare move for a major technology company, Microsoft hasasked Furdyk and Corriero to tell its middle-aged executives how allthis will come to pass.
"It used to be that the knowledge was held at the top of thecompany ladder, but that isn't happening with these new, successfulcompanies," said Bart Wojciehowski, director of strategic marketingfor Microsoft's Business Productivity Group. "Everybody has accessto knowledge via the technology and can run with it. There's a lotmore independence among these workers and we have to give them thetools to make the most of it."
Furdyk and Corriero, who are earning both paychecks andeducational credits for their work at Microsoft, won't be trying totell the company which wireless protocol will work best in local-area networks, or any other kind of technological esoterica. Theirjob is to explain to Microsoft executives the new generation'sphilosophy of work and play.
"People's lives used to be all about education, then work, thenretirement or fun or whatever," Corriero said, quickly drawing threedistinct circles in her notebook to make her point. "But what'shappening with us is that all three of these things are all mixed intogether." She then drew a series of interlocking circles.
"We're always learning, we like our work so we're working moreand we're working when we want to, and we're having fun now asopposed to later," she said.
Jonathan Zittrain, executive director of the Berkman Center forInternet and Society at Harvard Law School, said that while someworkers today might bristle at the constant connectivity and demandsof work, the next generation of workers will thrive on it.
"I do see a revolution in the works here," Zittrain said. "Ifyou're young and you've grown up with this stuff out there, it seemsnatural."
Furdyk is a perfect example. He started his first company,MyDesktop.com, when he was 15 with a friend from Australia whom henever met offline. The company was sold a year later, and he nowworks with his second company, called BuyBuddy.com, which helpsusers understand and purchase technology products. He plans tocontinue working for the Toronto-based company via the Internetwhile working with Microsoft here.
"You can do pretty much anything you need to do to run a companywithout necessarily being there," Furdyk said. "Sometimes it's goodto be face-to-face, but I can do most everything I need from here."
The lanky, sometimes laconic entrepreneur plans on finishing highschool, too, but isn't quite sure when. "I think they'll give me alittle classroom credit for working here," he said.
Corriero, an intense, talkative young woman with near-boundlessenergy, is gaining college credit at York University's SchulichSchool of Business in Toronto while working at Microsoft. However,business may end up taking a back seat to a career in law,communications or computing.
"I don't think they really teach what I want to end up doing,"Corriero said. That, of course, fits right in with the neo-Renassiance view of the future worker.
Tammy Morrison, the Microsoft product manager guiding the twoteen-agers in their work "sometimes they tell me what to do," shesaid saw a good example of new work methods firsthand whilevisiting a company run by twentysomethings.
Two young people at the company were talking nonchalantly about aparticular aspect of their work when they had a good idea anddecided to have a meeting. Instead of heading to the conferenceroom, they headed back to their computers and had their meeting in achat room.
"They preferred running meetings online than in person," Morrisonsaid. "It was a real eye-opener."
The reason for the online meetings were varied. The young workerswanted to have a thoughtful conversation without a lot of wastedtime, and they communicated by writing out their thoughts one at atime. They didn't spend time sitting around during the meeting manyparticipants worked on other projects between chat responses. And atthe end, there was a written record of the decision-making process.
Microsoft has intently studied this integration of technologyinto work and lifestyle. For example, the company recently put anumber of people in their late teens and early 20s into a lab to seehow they used computers and the Internet to fulfill tasks.
But Furdyk and Corriero could be the key. They are now workingfull time, running focus groups, writing reports and attendingseminars, all in hopes of chronicling their generation's shift inthe way they use technology. This, they say, is their opportunity totell Microsoft how they and their generation want to work and play.
No comments:
Post a Comment