Technological Factors
It was Alan Kay that said that 'What people mean by technology is anything that was invented since they were born'42. We think of it as leading edge new things or, as Danny Hillis is credited with pointing out, 'technology is stuff that doesn't work yet'43. Both quotes are relevant to thinking about technology in the context of buildings. It is natural to want the latest innovative technologies in any new facility but there is always the risk that it might not work, or at least might not work well enough. For example, wireless networking which is now robust and works well delivering bandwidth of 54 Mbits was talked about and available in the early/mid 90s - but installing it as the premier component of the network at that time would have been crazy. It was neither robust nor resilient, had insufficient bandwidth and was hopeless coping with concurrent users.
The important point with technology is that it never stands still. The rate of change of the capability of information technologies is phenomenal which means that the unstable emerging technologies of today will fairly quickly become mainstream robust solutions. If you leave them out of your project it's likely they'll make it look and feel outdated almost the instant the building opens.
There are no easy solutions to this dilemma - install all the latest stuff and it's up to the minute but may not work, don't install the latest stuff and you're out of date before you know it. And what's more it's always like this because of the rate of change. The only sensible strategy then is to think 'both and' and not 'either or'. Think hybrid portable/fixed desktop, wired networks/wireless, paper based information/digital information. For learning spaces where success relies on the interface between technology and human behaviour, this has clear advantages. 'Both and' inevitably provides a variety of provision - good because we have a variety of users with a variety of technological experience.
Drag the sliders to use the hybrid diagram
The fact that technology is always in flux introduces some uncertainty when considering what to include in your new building. Firstly it is important to realise, as Peter Drucker identifies, 'The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question'.44
It is certain that there will not be a 'right' answer and that the technology decisions are really about a range of answers that are all covered by the solution implemented - for example, wired and wireless for a network solution with certainty in the known reliability and capacity of wired, and growth and flexibility invested in wireless.
