What’s Wrong with Most People?
25 Jun 2006 in BloggerCon, Unconference, Weblogs by GarrickI remotely participated in a couple BloggerCon IV sessions this past weekend. I’m still a little in awe of how immersive the combination of IRC and streaming audio - kudos to the Dave Winer and the other organizers for bringing in the rest of the world.
Somewhere in the Niall Kennedy-led ‘Standards for Users’ session a bit about ‘most people’ not understanding technology (specifically RSS) came up.
According to 2005 population counts, China and India have a combined total of 2.3 billion citizens.
Chances are, if you’re reading this right now, you’re not ‘most people’. That’s OK. No one has ever solved a problem for most people. Problems are solved for very small niche groups - sometimes, when we get real lucky - more people (if not ‘most’) benefit. Curb cuts in the sidewalk originated to help those in wheelchairs - baby strollers, bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and grocery carts also benefitted. OXO Good Grips were originally designed to help those with arthritis - they’ve also helped me.
Though BloggerCon is a ‘users’ conference - the distinction between users & developers is horribly blurred. Thanks to technologies like RSS - and unlike automobiles and other electronics - that simplify without obscuring the inner-workings.
It’s not that most people need to intuitively understand a technology - it’s that they can tweak it, build-upon-it, to easily make their specific situation better.
On a related note, ‘Explaining RSS in 5 Minutes’ sounds like an excellent exercise.
UPDATE: Eric Rice wins for the Most Creative explanation.
Add a Comment
Related Entries
- Blogging as Image Control
- Overtime Hurts the Everyone
- What’s Your Traveller Risk Score?
- Tell Me When It’s Over
- What’s the Opposite of Tarjey?
