Cal on technology

Cal of our Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Board posted some great thoughts about technology today. Here is an excerpt below. Join the group for the full read.
From Cal:

I had a few thoughts I wanted to share, so I started to type them out. It kind of got bigger then I intended so I added a couple headings to break it up.

Instant Messaging / VoIP
According to research companies like Gartner, instant messaging (IM) is begining to overtake email in usage in a few years. I'm pretty sure there is an error in the way they are calculating usage, but IMs are still extremely popular especially for people in my generation (under 30) and certain industries. I also have my "go-to" import guy who begged me to get on Skype. Skype is a combination IM/Voice over IP service. It makes free international voice calls over the internet, and if you have a camera hooked up like my macbook you can video conference with Skype.
Speaking of video conferencing, its pretty simple now. If you have an IM conversation going, Its a single button click to switch to video conferencing. I can't understand why this isn't more prevalent in our business. Its very popular with college kids. My family uses it pretty often outside the office.
Outside of those users however, I only have a few venders who I speak with regularly over IM. And the ones I do IM with I had to set up myself. Some companies have policies that prohibit IM use. I had to call management at one of my most important venders to get my sales guy special permission.
For me, its worth the trouble to have quick access to my venders. It allows me to monitor the markets a lot closer to real time then telephone and email permits. I've been wondering how others in the industry are using the technology, and what we should expect in the future.
Web 2.0 / Social Networks in Produce
Has anyone really started using the new web social networks, like LinkedIn or Facebook, for productive business? There are plenty of people saying that these types of social networking sites are going to be the way we do business in the future.
In our day to day work we build networks of colleagues that are necessary to doing business. The promise of social network sites is that they will help us build and monitor our personal networks. For example, LinkedIn facilitates growing your contacts though friend of a friend services. The idea is that if you are looking for someone to provide a service or product, and you don't directly have someone you trust to do the job, you can check if anyone in your network has someone they trust in their network.

TK: What do you think? How long will it take for the industry to become up to speed with all the technology that is available to them? Instant messaging, video conferencing, Internet phone and who knows what is next? The under-30 demographic, like Cal, will lead the way. All I know is that not long after I started with The Packer, the fax machine was the eighth wonder of the world.