There are two worlds, online and offline.

So far all our effort has gone into thinking about how to translate offline behavior into online behavior.

We buy things on the street – How can we buy things online ?

We hang out with our friends at social gatherings – How can we hang out with our friends online ?

We flirt and date – How can we flirt and date online ?

We advertise on radio, TV, flyers and street signage – How can we advertise online ?

This thinking has lead to massive progress.  Not only are we able to do many of the things we’ve always done in the ‘real world’ online but many of the activities are better suited to the online world and so they have actually been improved.

But the times they are a-changing.  The online world is now mature enough to have developed it’s own behaviors.  There is an opportunity to go into reverse and look at what online behavior can be translated to the ‘real world’.

Online everything comes to us – Offline we queue and go to the counter.

Surely in the restaurants of the future we will order and pay without leaving the table and without wait staff coming to us.  What would an in-table touchscreen ordering system look like for an expensive, classy restaurant ?  Bill splitting is hard, surely there is a technological solution.

Online we can re-play, re-read and re-watch – Offline amazing stuff happens and is then lost forever

The vast majority of discussion in the vast majority of business meetings is completely lost by the end of the meeting.

Why don’t pool tables at bars have instant replay screens built into the light shade ? $0.50 to replay the last 10 seconds, so you can watch that amazing shot or copy it to your flash drive.

Why aren’t there cheap ‘instant replay’ camera devices you can set up at your local amateur cricket / baseball game ?

Online we can associate based on common interest – Offline it can be difficult to find out if you have a common interest with the people around you

meetup.com is on the case.

Online we have access to massive choice – How can we increase choice offline ?

Surely universities, clothes shops, cinemas and the like will only be around in 30 years if they are able to compete with the almost infinite choice available online.

Online we have access to research / background information in a few clicks and keystrokes – What offline activities would benefit from having more information available ?

How could you collect real time statistics at local sports events ?  How could you make reviews of thousands of wines available at thousands of restaurants so you could make a more informed choice as you sit at the table.  How could you make the average cost of specific auto repair jobs available to customers as they stand in the auto-repair shop waiting for a quote ?

Online we are able to publish our ideas very easily – What’s the ‘away from the computer’ equivalent of a blog ?

Are shop fronts and street signage going to change to become more information rich as businesses compete based on ideas ? Will the accountant’s window contains a large screen display giving his philosophy on how to manage your money ?

Web businesses have an amazing set of tools for analysing their interactions with customers and potential customers.  Would any web business worth it’s salt not track and monitor where visitors were coming from ? Of course not.

Yet what about offline ‘real world’ businesses ?  How many accountants, travel agents, printing companies, fitness clubs and the like have hard data on where their customers heard about them and how well inquiries are being converted into sales ?  How many are able to compare that data to their peers ? Some, but not many.   Because it’s hard to collect, hard to collate and hard to analyse.

Offline businesses may never be able to do analytics as easily as online businesses but they sure as eggs is eggs should be able to do it easier than they can now.