Daddy, how did you enter the internet before there have been computers?

And this question is part of the answer I try to give when someone asks - a little bit scared - if this terrible thing with the interweb will go away some day. Or if the next generation will not sometime soon be bored by the web or just grow up and leave it.

My anwer is always very simple, very short - and very clear: No. And then I tell stories like this question of the young kid. Or I just ask them, if they ever thought about the fact that MTV does not broadcast music videos anymore during daytime. Or why not anybody in my house uses our print enzyclopedia anymore, nor our very good world atlas of Time magazine. They are covered with dust.

As we see - at least here in Germany - another serious crisis for the print media right now, the interweb obviously already has changed our job as communication professionals. (For those able to read German, here is a very good German post about the print media crisis changing our jobs.)

The main challenge I see right now is no longer convincing people that the "new web" is important. Whoever asks this question already knows the answer, so no need to stress this anymore. The main challenge seems to be how to use the dynamic and the opportunities of the things that happen online - esp b/c often there is just a very short timeslot for it. How can we move from listening (what I think now everyone is doing -or at least should do if he is doing his job right) to acting.

A long story short: acting and grabbing an opportunity and being in the driver's seat is key imho. And acting without being in control is something more and more pr pros are learning right now.