Everyone Can Benefit from Real Estate Technology– Part 1

December 5, 2006 |

With the Web 2.0 movement changing real estate, there is much talk about disintermediation and transparency. Kevin Boer thinks that agents will never be disintermediated, and I happen to agree. Then there is an entire blog dedicated to transparency in real estate. Transparency is a good thing.

New technology affects just about every industry at some point, and sports officiating has been no different. While many in the officiating industry were initially very resistant to new technologies, the overall effect of these technologies has been mostly positive. In fact, technological advancements in officiating have served to actually enhance the standing and reputation of sports officials. The same could be true in real estate.

The technology that has had the greatest impact on sports officiating is instant replay. Instant replay is now part of professional basketball, football, ice hockey, tennis, and even NASCAR. The technology has made its way into college with at least football and basketball, and has even been used at the High School level in Minnesota for basketball and ice hockey championships.

As you might imagine, most officials were initially very resistant to allowing instant replay. Even to this day, there are those who feel that instant replay is bad for sports and for officials. While the merits of instant replay will always be debated, the actual effect of replay has been to make officials more accountable, and ro add a degree of transparency to officiating.

Accountability has increased because regardless of whether or not instant replay is used during the course of a game, video replay technology is used by officials to evaluate officials at every level. Video replay is a valuable tool for all officials because it allows them to see themselves on tape and review calls and plays at their leisure as many times as they would like. This type of review is impossible during the course of a game.

A common refrain among basketball officials is, “You better be able to beat the tape.” This means that when you make a call, you must not only be able to defend the call when questioned, but the videotape must show that you made the right call as well. When a mistake is on tape, there is no place to hide. Transparency is at its’ peak. College football experienced the potential negative consequences that can come with increased transparency earlier this year.

Transparency and accountability have positive consequences as well. At the professional level, video compilations are made specifically for officials so they can evaluate their own performance immediately after the game. In most major sports, video of the game is edited for the officials and they can download it for viewing on a laptop hours after the game has ended. This type of technology simply wasn’t available a decade ago.

The move to increased accountability and transparency through replay has made officiating better overall. Officials are now able to prevent mistakes by watching and analyzing game tape in much the same way that a team uses tape to prepare for a game.  Officials have been able to use technology to their advantage in order to improve the way games are officiated. As a result, players, coaches and fans are able to benefit from the increase in the quality of officiating.

In my next post, I will explain how technology can increase accountability and transparency in real estate. Just as in officiating, everyone can benefit. . .

[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, disintermediation, accountability, technology, web 2.0, instant replay, officiating [/tags]

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Industry Issues, Officiating, disintermediation 

Comments

2 Responses to “Everyone Can Benefit from Real Estate Technology– Part 1”

  1. Pat Kitano on December 6th, 2006 8:32 am

    Fine post Daniel… intriguing how various institutions are being affected by transparency… I like the way you weave your love of officiating into your articles.

    Michael Price also has a look on how the new transparencies affect society at http://www.mlpodcast.com/blog/2006/12/radical-transparency-in-real-estate.html

    [Reply]

  2. Keith Jeppson on June 8th, 2007 2:18 am

    Dang, I missed the ride. Will there be another round?

    [Reply]

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