Is it good?
marie.cl...@gmail.com
maintain, and inspire a community?
Can providing laptop computers, internet access, education, and
support bring people together. Can tools raise grades, connect people,
help people get jobs, help people get into colleges, start businesses,
get promotions...
What do you think?
Shannon
"An appropriate tool..." and one of many.
Can these things "bring people together...?" Just about anything can
bring people together. People like togetherness, almost all of them,
at least some of the time. Even Tom and John. Even me. And people
like talking (however you want to define that word) about things they
share an interest in.
Can tools help, start, get? Of course. It's what tools do. I mean,
it seems that's definitional. If it doesn't help, it's not really a
tool, is it?
But social tools aren't uniquely capable. In a woodshop or on a
construction site, 'the right tool for the right job' can mean
something very precise. There are amazingly refined tools out there
to do just one job very well.
Digital technology is less like that, and digital tools... social
tools... are less like that. Computers in the form of laptops,
internet, education and training can do a lot of things... and they
can help someone motivated to do things they can't currently do, and
to do those things more easily... once the individual has become
comfortable with the interface. (Some digital tools, of course, do
one thing very well... think GPS/GIS mapping tools. But they're tools
which assume some level of background knowledge. Like a router...
um... you know, a tool to shape wood.)
Anyway. More access to more tools is good. I think that's pretty
clear. But people have to want to accomplish something, and have some
idea what they want to accomplish--neither of which is something
anyone can give to anyone else.
I say, if they're hungry, give 'em a fish and a pole, and teach 'em
how to use it. And a pretty basic cook book to get 'em going.
They'll figure out the rest, and ask for help when they need it.
Scott Krieger
tend to think of computers as some kind of life long commitment when
in fact they are increasingly disposable. If a laptop is treated well,
you might get 5 years out of it. I think the computers we've been
talking about are laptops that are just a couple years old. Retired
for corporate upgrades, that sort of thing. They probably have a
couple good years left and if someone had something they really wanted
to accomplish, this would be a good way to help them out.
That sums it up for me. Perhaps once that sucker breaks, it's broke
and that's all there is to it. A temporary hand up to someone trying
to sort something out. Perhaps an underprivileged student trying to go
to college. A single mom in need of better options for work, etc. Lots
of good reasons to give a person a computer.
The internet is a different puzzle. Social tools don't replace
society. They are another expression of society. In that sense, I
agree with Shannon, 'more tools' is good. The internet has a nasty way
of creating dissonance. It is a very noisy place, but not like a
factory, where the noise is a byproduct of industry and a working
hazard. Noise is part of its aim. As a social tool, this is
problematic. How to filter out the noise?
Well, places where people succeed in finding each other and making a
social connection are not as compartmentalized as the purveyors of the
internet would have us believe. MC, I think we both wrestle with this
in building web sites. Social goals are different then business goals
and yet business goals drive the internet. So the internet is
primarily a business tool and only secondarily a social tool. Social
tools are part of what we are sold. That doesn't mean they are
ineffective. I rather enjoy keeping track of my friends on Facebook
and iChatting now and again. Through the benevolence of Comcast.
In answer to your question MC, I'd say that technology must do these
things. It absolute must or it is a part of the problem. Society
happens by any means necessary. Whatever connects us, forges us
together in networks of mutual dependancy. That is both good in what
it does to support the underprivileged and bad in that zombie invasion
will destroy us all.
Scott