The iPad: from a Technologist to a Technologist
There’s a down-side to being educated, economically enabled and technologically exposed. It is the lack of visibility surrounding those other people who barely get by using email (or ignore computers entirely). The old. The (actual) poor. The everyday person who is ignorant about how to code web pages, use multimedia tools and write a dissertation on the potential of ambient devices in the social context. The iPad conversation is generally, but not always, missing the proportions of those people – the untouched.
In mid-2001 I had never turned a computer on in my life. I tried to enroll in an introductory course to learn how to use the word processor (now I know its called Microsoft Word) and to learn email. Instead I ended up doing a Certificate 2 in Information Technology and then a Certificate 3 in Information Technology (General). That took a year. I enrolled in a Bachelor of Computing and during that time I also completed a Certificate 4 in Information Technology (Website Design) and Certificate 4 in Information Technology (Website Administration). There are some Cisco certificates on my wall from that period, too – CCNA1 Networking Basics and CCNA2 Router and Routing Basics. In 2007 I was on the Department of Science, Engineering and Technology’s Dean’s Roll of Excellence at the University of Tasmania. Currently I am in the second half of a Master of Business Administration (Journalism and Media Studies) scheduled to graduate at the end of 2010.
My point is that, probably like many of you out there, my story is atypical. I know more about computers, how they work and their potential than the average person in a supermarket. What I don’t know is not insurmountably difficult to begin to learn. Something that I have grown to realise is that the world is not made up of people like me. There is a myth of the average user.
That’s where I agree with the TechCrunch article by Ethan Nicholas Why My Mom’s Next Computer is Going to be an iPad. Rather than looking at what it does not do for users you need to look at the obstacles to everyday computer use that it removes – no networking, no need to reload the Windows operating system, no complex error messages coming from a system falling over itself to be the tool for everybody and everything. Instead, the iPad appears to be geared to several things that I want to do myself without flashing up the full kit-and-kaboodle.
The iPad does seem to be getting some bad press. I am not exactly sure why though, maybe its the fear of change. But let’s face it now, technologist to technologist, we didn’t ever buy into the idea that computing was going to stay focused on the keyboard and mouse interface forever?
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:58 am
I agree with what Zeldman included in his recent post about flash, iPad and web standards. Because most people just want a computer that bloody works – its the biggest single bane of computing for all time to date in my opinion. Most people aren’t techs, most people don’t want to deal with driver issues etcetera ad infinitum. Its almost like our average computer is a product not yet ready for market. Maybe this type of computer is the future – after all, everything is moving into the cloud so why do we need more than a dumb client or a specialised tool to achieve what we want.