A digital cinema provider from Hollywood will soon start using Raptivity for sales presentations. The owner of a Spanish humanities and technology web site has plans to use Raptivity for enhancing his web portal.
Raptivity, the e-learning tool? Yes, and no. Yes, because in essence, both will use the same Raptivity software we use in e-learning. No, because their versions of Raptivity -Raptivity Presenter and Raptivity Web Expert - are specially adapted to support presentation making and web development respectively.
What is happening here? Rapid interactivity building, which started in e-learning, is now spreading to presentations and web development. Boredom is a common problem, except e-learning professionals were the first to address it using rapid interactivity. Now presenters and web developers are realizing they too can fight the affliction this way.
The history of human innovation is full of stories where an idea took root in a niche, and soon broke out into the mainstream. For example, Nike air cushion shoes use a technology that was designed for Neil Armstrong's first expedition to the moon.
How does this process work? It all starts when several market segments begin to suffer from what could be a common pain point. However the awareness of the pain is at varying levels - some markets feel it more than others. Accordingly, the willingness to do what it takes to fix the pain also varies.
Sooner or later, one market segment can bear the pain no longer. At this point, if an innovator introduces a solution, it creates tremendous value for its users, who respond overwhelmingly in favor of the new product.
Sooner or later, this success is visible to other markets, and they realize that their risk in adopting the innovation is only incremental. With relatively little effort, they derive benefits of the new technology, and spread the buzz. Thus, it is a matter of carefully adapting the innovation to new markets, to start a virtuous circle of innovation and market response.
So much for the process. Why should this should bring cheer to e-learning professionals? Well, when rapid interactivity spreads to other applications, some innovation historian will remember e-learning's pioneering role in its development. It doesn't hurt to say we showed the way, does it?
