Colleges – a place where our future generations emerge and develop the new and cool.
Nowhere is this more true than for Web products and services.
We, who have been through the Internet boom/bust years, are now in our 30s and 40s. We have fused the internet into our lives, but we did not grow up with it. We had to integrate it slowly, deliberately, and smartly throwing away old habits…or not. Sometimes we can’t let go of the old ways of doing things because we’re old farts.
On the other hand, the teens and tweens of today have grown up knowing only the Internet in their lives. They have used every bit of it and have no experience of life without it.
A growing belief is that this generation is really where the next generation Web products will emerge. They see and experience the Internet in ways that we are too old to know. And thus, they can see holes and opportunities in the spectrum of Web services that we can’t.
We need to tap into this resource and nurture the next set of great entrepreneurs. College internships? Consulting gigs? Or even simple conversations? All of these and more can be utilized to really figure out what products and services will be necessary and vital for the future Net generations.