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What Kind of User Are You?
Last week, IT Wire ran an article on a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which suggests that a surprisingly large number of Americans make only limited use of technology. Based on a survey of 4,001 adults, 49% were in the "Low Tech or Non User" category, a group that included inexperienced experimenters (Internet latecomers who tend not to have broadband), light-but-satisified users (who have some technology but don't use it much), indifferent users (who find connectivity annoying and don't care when their connection goes down) and off-net individuals (who have neither cell phones nor Internet connections and like it that way).
Pew placed 31% of the group in an "Elite" category. They're the ones who consider technology and the Internet either essential or extremely important, participate in on-line activities
and express themselves on the Web. They see the Internet as a way to connect to people and information, and have strong positive views about how technology helps them learn and perform on their jobs. The
last 20% were Middle-of-the-Roaders, who might make significant investments in technology, even though they sometimes feel hassled by the experience.
This suggests that those who are behind some
of the newer, collaborative Web 2.0 buzz actually represent a pretty small percentage of the population. Only 8% of the survey group were "Omnivores" (the most aggressive users within the Elite
Category), and the ones most likely to be engaged in things 2.0ish. That has some significant implications for Web-based communication and marketing. It appears the Internet includes a more complex and
layered demographic than you might think.
Balancing Diligence and Laziness
Organizational consultant Jim McGee has a nice post at the FASTForward blog, a multi-author forum focused on how companies and individuals use technology to collaborate, innovate and manage knowledge. He opens with a quote from General Erich Von Manstein, in which Manstein considered the relative value of diligence and laziness in the German Officer
Corps. Manstein felt that smart, hard-working officers should obviously be much prized, while stupid, lazy officers would do no harm. However, stupid hard-working ones were a menace. In the General's
view, lazy intelligent officers were the most suited for high office, since they didn't like to be rushed, and gave themselves time to make good decisions.
McGee goes on to consider how most
people feel the need to look busy on the job, which may run counter to the less structured style of modern, collaborative working.
Even though we know that thought and reflection are an essential
part of decision making, our reward systems tend to favor those who seem to be doing something, even if it might be the wrong thing. That suggests we should find new techniques for thinking in public,
establishing a kind of "visible laziness" that won't draw the attention of the activity police.
Tyrants and Bullies and Louts (oh my!)
Email has been with us for quite some time, so there's been a lot written on the
principles of email etiquette. It may seem strange, then, that the blog-o-sphere is now going through its own period of soul-searching on what's acceptable by way of blog comments.
If you open a
blog for comments, people can pretty much post anything they like, from the interesting to the obscene. Kathy Sierra, the person
behind a technology blog called Creating Passionate Users, has gone into semi-seclusion after being the target of threatening and sexually
graphic comments. The issue has generated enough heat for Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and publisher Tim O'Reilly to collaborate on a Blogger Code of Conduct.
In somewhat related news, The Register published an interesting tidbit about a report from CSC's Leading Edge Forum. It suggested that rude and socially inept users are undermining enterprise sharing programs, which
is a change management wrinkle that might not be obvious to program managers. The report's author feels the problem will get worse, too, as new office tools (like Microsoft's SharePoint) introduce
greater collaborative capabilities, thereby opening up new opportunities to offend, or be offended.
Everything is Miscellaneous
If like us, you're a David Weinberger fan, you might already recognize "Everything is Miscellaneous" as the title of his latest book, published May 1. We haven't picked up our copy yet, but it's certainly on the list. Writing about the book in his newsletter, Weinberger says that while we know how to organize things in the real world, we have to invent new ways of doing so on line. That's because unlike physical stuff, digital stuff can be stored in more than one place. It also means the schemes we devise for categorization can be either personal, or public or somewhere in between, which is what happens in the tagging of photos on Flickr or URLs on del.icio.us. Interesting stuff to think about...
You can find links to some early reviews at the Everything is Miscellaneous site, and might be inspired to buy a copy of your very own!
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