Much recent press has been going to the next generation of technologists and technology consumers - social networking, mobile commerce, new media focus on the elusive eyeballs of the young consumer, India's young workforce (median age of 25).
Just as big an opportunity lies in either transitioning aging populations or continuing to make them productive as their mental and physical faculties evolve.
How big is the aging problem?
An article in Government Technology says "Sixty-four percent of Washington's workforce is eligible to retire between now and 2015. The figure for Maine is 59 percent, for Tennessee 58 percent, for Michigan 56 percent and for Pennsylvania 54 percent". It is happening across the developed world. This in England. And this in Australia
Opens up at least 3 opportunity areas
a) Accessible technology
To allow aging workers to continue to be productive. As this National Academies Press publication shows as we age visual, cognitive, auditory abilities deteriorate that many technologies take for granted. Steve Wildstrom at BusinessWeek has an article on "Boomer-friendly" gadgets here - from magnifying text to speech recognition to tremor monitoring. See also Microsoft's white paper here on the challenge and about emerging technology solutions.
b) Knowledge transition
Documenting and transitioning knowledge - capturing nuggets of best practices and industry knowledge, training the next generation staff - is another huge opportunity. Knowledge capture/playback, documentation and training software come to mind. IBM Global Services has even established a practice focused on this. Offshore vendors have shown an uncanny ability to capture knowledge and transition it to their teams thousands of miles away, may with some re-positioning be able to help with similar transitions around aging workforces.
c) Keeping retirees connected
While there is obviously a whole body of technology going in to health care (topics for separate posts) it is also nice to see the technology world focus on allowing retirees to stay at home rather than at care facilities - as in the Intel research and this Washington Post article about keeping seniors connected. For many companies they will continue to represent a useful. part time work force.
As we age, it is good to see technology allow us to offset our growing deficiencies and to allow us to continue to stay connected - and to transition what we know to the next generation of workers.
