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Before I write these emails to you, I review my previous newsletter. I'm mostly looking to avoid redundancy. No such concern today: it feels like I'm writing in a different world. So much has changed in the last two weeks as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. As of this writing, over one hundred thousand people have been infected, and more than three thousand have died. The foremost concern at the moment is treating the sick and keeping the virus from spreading further.
Likely, you're currently more affected by measures to slow down contagion than by the disease itself. Many of us are seeing our daily routines and plans disrupted. Companies have started asking employees to work from home. Universities are canceling in-person classes. Major conferences, such as SXSW and Google I/O, have also been canceled. Travel-related industries are reeling. Apart from the human toll — which is our foremost concern — the disease is likely to affect economies around the world.
Among these impacts, we've seen an acceleration in the adoption of remote work. Many of us have been working in digital places for a long time. But so far, much remote collaboration has been constrained to day-to-day communications. "Working from home" has also been optional for many of us. But organizations are now mandating remote work. They're also moving online activities that previously required in-person meetings, such as interviewing job candidates. In short, there seems to be a shift happening in how we work online.
We're also learning about the situation itself, and how we should respond, online. (I've linked to an especially useful resource below.) Tech companies like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook have moved to constrain the spread of false or misleading information by banning certain types of ads and product listings, a recognition of the key role their systems play in informing our actions.
Which is to say, this isn't the first time the world has faced a potential pandemic. But today we have ubiquitous systems that make it possible to both disseminate information very quickly and, for many of us, to continue adding value during a disruptive period. As a result of coronavirus, more people are likely to become more reliant on digital places. The structure and design of these environments are more critical today than ever before.
I wish you and yours good health. I hope we all make it through this unusual period with as little disruption as possible.
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