This April 2009 edition of the RAAS Report is historic because for the first time, it will be published in electronic form only! When we wrote the first edition of the RAAS Report, way back in 2004, we set out to comment on things that affect the real managers working at the coal face of our industry. Every second month since, the Report has appeared as a hard copy glossy insert in the industry bible, Resort News. It is truly indicative of how the world of mass communication is changing, that we can now reach more people, more quickly, and with greater cost efficiency --- with not a printing press in sight!

I remember that back in the Eighties, this new-fangled computer technology was holding forth the promise of the "paperless office". Somehow, it never happened. Yes, companies like RAAS do store their old files as digital scans, but "paperless office" --- not a chance!

The real benefit of the digital paradigm occurred in another area altogether --- the area of communication!

Consider this! The words you are now reading were first typed into a laptop as a Word document; then converted by a very smart chap into an HTML file. (In the short time it takes for this to happen, people have probably been visiting our web site and filling in a digital form that adds their names to an ever growing database of interested people who have asked to receive that HTML file... digitally.) Let's say it took an hour to compose and type this report, and another 30 minutes to do the layout and convert to HTML. Add a few more minutes and a few more keystrokes, and you will get a very professional looking

document delivered to thousands of recipients in all corners of the globe at a total elapsed time of one hour & forty-five minutes! I doubt that many of us (particularly those over the age of 45) really understand the power of this communication phenomenon.

Is it any wonder that the world has shrunk? Is it any wonder that sites like Facebook are growing exponentially? Is it any wonder that anyone with a point to push (or a tale to tell), can become their own publisher? Is it any wonder that bloggers blog and tweeters twitter?

The problem with all of this (progress) is that persons of a certain age can feel left out! What the hell is a blogger? How on earth does a tweeter twitter? It all seems so --- YUPPIE, or something --- (and unapproachable)! Well, I've got news for you. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is NOT the pimply faced ones with colourful tattoos and body piercings; it is the 35 to 45 year olds, and that age range is rising! Even your humble scribe has his own Facebook page --- and sadly the scribe will NEVER see the south side of 60 again!

I think it is about time I became a blogger! I must confess that this is a term that, when I first heard it about a year ago, summoned up images of chubby English schoolboys at Eton, Harrow or Rugby. You know what I mean --- ""Fatso" Welsby, "Jumbo" Gormley, and "Blogger" Harrington-Smythe hurried to the tuck-shop to get cream buns and toffee before the kick-off at the rugger".

It is, of course, something entirely different!

A "blog" is shorthand for "web-log", and gives everyone in the world the chance to express their thoughts and ideas on line. Sadly, there are many people in the world who should never be allowed to open their mouths, such is the nonsense that may pour forth, and consequently, many blogs are total rubbish! These blogs normally die the death they deserve! It is really all about CONTENT. A blog that contains content that people want to read will prosper; will rise in the Google rankings, and will be read by even more. When the content suffers, the readership suffers, the rating suffers, and the author sinks into insignificance! Such is Darwinian life!

So how does this digital shift affect you as a manager? Apart from blogging and social-interaction sites such as Facebook, the killer application (and one of the oldest) on the Internet is email. Yet, I still meet managers who are not using email to communicate with their owners. So quick, so easy and so inexpensive --- yet some managers do not even have their owners' email addresses! This borders on insanity, and even if you are a "greybeard" like me, you can learn to use these 21st Century tools. Just because we ignore it, the digital age is not going to go away, so make a promise to yourself that you will learn some basics about your computer, the Internet, email and the like.

Who knows? Six months from now, you might be blogging and twittering with RAAS and the best of them!

If you would like to comment on anything you have read in The RAAS Report, please write to PO Box 1325, Sunnybank Hills, Qld 4109 or send an email to mike@raas.com.au.

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