Last month a group of 12 university students representing the global NetGen (a.k.a. Internet Generation) gathered in Budapest for Microsoft's second annual Office Information Worker Board of the Future conference. At the end of the conference, the group issued five predictions for what the workplace will look like in 10 years. They were:

1. Connectivity will be truly ubiquitous. People will be able to work virtually anyplace, at any time. Firms will support this flexibility, while employees will increasingly supply their own connected systems, blurring the line between work life and personal life.

2. Interfaces will be more natural. The user interface will become more natural, contextually intelligent and adaptive — just better.

3. Technology at home will be integrated and include all forms of entertainment. Technology’s reach will extend to clothing and housewares, and personal finance will tie to the shopping experience. Consumer technology (and content) will pour into the workplace.

4. Learning will be driven by the individual. Increasing job movement will lead to greater self-initiated learning through on-demand, continually available forms of education, both formal and informal. The highly dynamic workplace will drive the need for lifelong learning.

5. Access to information will be smarter. Improved tools for discovering and using information will make possible a “collective intelligence,” and managers will benefit by making better-informed decisions more easily.

I didn't find anything particularly new or groundbreaking in these summaries, so I thought I'd get in touch with Microsoft to find out what was going on behind these predictions. What I found was very interesting indeed.

I spoke to Daniel Rasmus, director of Information Work Vision at Microsoft and leader of the Board of the Future project and two of the students who participated in the conference, Cherie Camille Wilson of the US and Varun Sunderraman of India (who now works in London) (their bios can be found here).

Ambassadors from the Future

The group of students who gathered in Budapest considered themselves "ambassadors from the future" according to Rasmus. They were there representing their constituencies: members of their countries who couldn't be present, particularly those who face significant disadvantages in connecting to the global IT infrastructure. These students came to Budapest with a social agenda.

That social agenda strongly underlies the five predictions, particularly those of ubiquitous connectivity and technology at home. In fact, they all believe that connectivity is an absolute factor in future success. That doesn't mean terminals in libraries, but rather connectivity that reaches into the home for each individual.

"Access is becoming an everyday part of life," said Wilson. "So much is taking place via technology today, like applying for jobs and finding basic information, interacting with classes abroad in school and keeping in touch with friends, that if you only have access at a library or at school, you are falling even further behind."

While Sunderraman thinks it is unlikely that true equality of access will ever be provided, he feels we must avoid an uncontrollably widening digital divide. "The masses of people left behind in the IT revolution will find it very hard to compete or even cope with their disadvantage!" he commented. He offered a potential solution, "Another path is for the internet to become a utility through the gradual inclusion of internet access in the list of social demands. When the majority of the people think that internet access is a right and basic requirement, governments will have to provide this as a service to maintain popular support and mitigate the risk of being overthrown by another party with better policies."

Breathing Down the Neck of the Corporate World

"When they arrive in the workplace, the NetGen feels underutilized," commented Rasmus. "They have more finely tuned technology and communications skills than companies know what to do with. Furthermore, research has shown that the NetGen's brains are wired differently. They DO know more [than we do] about how to integrate technology into their lives!"

Sunderraman concurs. "As a member of the NetGen, I represent a growing section of the world population that has grown up with technology. For us technology is a part of our life, not a hurdle that we need to overcome to get on with our life. We are typically very fast learners, early adopters of new platforms and ideas in IT and also the users who best leverage the wide spectrum of benefits that IT has to offer."

Wilson agrees. She said, "Our generation has access to so much, especially with technology. We have been able to participate in chat rooms with people around the globe since we were kids. We have connected to students all around the world. Our generation is grabbing these opportunities by the bootstraps."

But don't talk to Cherie about entitlement: "It may seem like that, but we are just taking advantage of what is available to us." Wouldn't it be better if companies took advantage of that?

Companies need to create a new model of work to meet the different expectations of this generation. For example, they expect employees to give them time to do personal things on company time in exchange for being available outside of normal hours. In fact, given the blurring of company time and leisure time, it is now up to the individual to make choices. Rasmus calls this a "commitment based view of work" and feels that computing infrastructure can help to do that.

Sunderraman added, "I leverage technology to facilitate the best work-life balance. At university I always carried my laptop in my backpack and worked from various locations (at cafes, in libraries, in classrooms, between lectures). Overall this made the work hours more productive and frees up more time for entertainment and recreation. Even now, as I work in industry, I always carry my personal laptop with me. Recently, I bought a smart phone-cum-pocket pc device, to make the most of those idle moments during commutes by reading, making diary notes or fixing appointments."

But, still, there are frustrations. He continues, "My biggest frustration in this area is the lack of ubiquitous connectivity. At university, the connectivity is typically excellent and it is easy to work from anywhere, but the same is not true for city life. It is harder and much more expensive to get the same levels of connectivity and quality. Even in a city as modern as London, there are very few places that offer wireless connectivity to the Internet at reasonable prices. These channels are not yet within the reach of the common public. They remain exclusive to businessmen and executives."

Wilson likes the idea of deadline-driven work vs. simply putting in the hours. "Then you can work when you feel like it [as long as you meet the deadline] vs. when someone tells you to," she explained.

Lifelong Education

Complaints from businesses about the lack of skills of entry-level employees notwithstanding, neither Cherie nor Varun felt that their education to date has been lacking, acknowledging they are the lucky ones. Both feel that in general, however, that there is a real lack of knowledge, especially in underfunded communities.

Sunderraman explained, "Education has not kept up with the pace of industry. In this rapidly globalised world, new markets, products, technologies, and techniques evolve far too quickly for universities to provide support for, under their current teaching systems. I see two possible solutions to this problem. Both of them will require life-long learning, but the medium of achieving them is different.

1. Either educational institutions or industrial corporations must take the lead and provide highly modular short and easily deliverable courses that equip aspirants with the skills required to deal with emerging jobs
2. Universities must revamp their education to focus less on rote memory and skills catering to a narrow domain and instead offer a broader degree that teaches students the art of learning!"

Job Hopping or Climbing a Personal Ladder?

A 2004 British report stated that Gen-Y will change jobs 19 times in their lifetimes. So much for company loyalty! The focus is now on the personal ladder not the corporate ladder.

Wilson explains, "We use jobs as stepping stones. One job is key to accessing another one. Right out of school, we start weighing what is going to look good on our resumes, gain us exposure. We decide when to go back to school, or when to work part-time. We seek to gain access to resources and experiences to make ourselves more marketable."

To members of the NetGen, building networks is second nature. Traditional boundaries are disappearing. And they are approaching this in highly strategic ways, with a focus on what is best for themselves. They have learned from their parents: you can't count on any one job or company any more.

Sunderraman is a case in point. He said, "I have already worked in 4 different companies (over vacations for short spans of time, i.e. 4-10 weeks) and at 3-4 research positions at university. This roughly simulates a very fast paced life. Obviously, this is not anywhere as stressful as changing full-time jobs once every 10 weeks, because there is a lot less at stake, but it definitely prepares me to adapt to new environments fast, make a quick impact and contribute effectively and add value over a short span of time. These skills will no doubt be useful later in my career when I switch jobs."

He also approaches this new world with a highly strategic viewpoint, "When one switches their careers very often, they gather a diverse range of skills, but what they ultimately need to rely on to secure their next job is their core transferable skills. I would not necessarily look towards structured courses at university or workplaces to give me these skills. I believe these skills need to be nurtured by being proactive and taking what is already in front of you and leveraging it to your benefit."

Generations in the Workplace

With differently wired brains and a different perspective on the corporate ladder, it is no wonder that there are conflicts in the workplace between the NetGen and older generations. While some of this can be chalked up to the usual older-younger divide, there are real differences and therefore real challenges to address. It seems to me, however, that the companies that can capture these new skills and workplace visions of the NetGen will surely benefit in today's chaotic and connected global markets.