Generational diversity has been a popular topic at the ASAE & The Center Technology conference. People are obviously aware that the youngest generation in the workforce (and most of your association’s future members) views and uses technology differently than the rest of us. But I was particularly interested in some statistics presented in yesterday’s opening session.

64% of young people in the U.S. "add or change things online." The Internet is not just a vast expanse of information that we can access. I notice that I still often think of it that way– since I grew up without access to all that information instantly, that is what seems so cool.

But the younger generation is not just about reading what’s out there, they are creating, changing, adding. That has huge implications, not only for how we do things online, but how we run our organizations in general. The definition of collaboration is changing, and I’m already noticing how "old fashioned" I am in my assumptions.

And a more staggering statistic, by the way, is related to our typically isolated view of the world in this country. While it is amazing that 64% of young people in this country are adding and changing online, that figure is 94% for young people in India and China. Oh yeah, and there are TEN TIMES as many young people in those two countries as there are here.