What can users do? [was Re: [Sigiii-l] plaza please post]

[Charles Lam]

Dear Peter,

I agree with your observation and solutions in general.

Whatever marketing jargon one would like to use explain their tactics, most
ICT suppliers are not addressing the real needs of end users. Some argue
that consumers of fashion, entertainment, etc. do not know their real needs
either; as long as the marketers can generate a current for the (stupid?)
consumers to follow, they can be called innovative and successful!

Another thing I have found out is that people who work in the ICT industry
are supposed to help humans communicate better; but often we can find just
the opposite. Technical incompatibility is just one example. Who produce the
the most important technical standards? Not influenced by representatives of
end users/neutral organisations, as far as I know.

In my another email response, I have also voiced my concern that it is very
difficult today for the end users (i.e. community) to be at the driver's
seat.

I welcome all suggestions that 'in practice' can make the ICT industry more
demand-pull.

Best regards,

Charles Lam


----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Jörgensen" <pjorgensen at lis.fsu.edu>
To: <sigiii-l at asis.org>
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 4:34 AM
Subject: What can users do? [was Re: [Sigiii-l] plaza please post]


> It seems to me that much of the upgrading that users do is not really
> necessary. The manufacturers of IT are competing in a growing market.
> This means they need a good deal of differentiation to attract the new
> buyers. This differentiation takes the form, from most companies, of
> added features, rather than style. A mature industry (e.g. the auto
> industry) adds relatively few features each year but does a lot with
> stylistic (read aesthetic) aspects of their products. A 1960's (or even
> probably earlier) car is completely compatible with the current roads
> and driving protocols. It is fast enough to keep up with traffic on the
> highway, it has the necessary lights and license plate mounting
> technology, it's about the same size as other cars on the road, etc.
> Even a 1910 car can still drive on the highways without too much
> "incompatibility". Now, let's look at equivalent IT. Can you do the
> word processing you need with a 1985 system? You bet! Lots of people
> produced lots of complex documents (like PhD dissertations) using those
> systems. Can you do sophisticated what-if analyses with a 1985
> spreadsheet? Of course you can. So why do we all think we need the
> latest versions of these and other IT tools? I'll leave that question
> for you to decide for yourself.
>
> I'll finish with the following thoughts more directly (perhaps) related
> to Charles' question:
>
> On Saturday, Oct 12, 2002, at 10:59 US/Eastern, Charles Lam wrote:
>
> > The question is: what can end users do to help ourselves, to
> > improve the utility, cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness of ICT?
>
> To improve the:
> Utility:
> Most ICT has more utility than we need already, we need to learn how
> to use what's already there.
>
> Cost-effectiveness:
> Stop upgrading unnecessarily. Adopt open-source standards.
>
> User-friendliness:
> Scale back your expectations for features. Every feature (whether you
> use it or not) adds complexity and therefore reduces user-friendliness.
>
>
>
> Dr. Peter Jörgensen [LIS 4482 and 4488/5489]
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> School of Information Studies -
> Florida State University
> Tallahassee, FL 32306
> 850-644-8116 (work)
> 850-574-0776 (home)
> pjorgensen at lis.fsu.edu
>
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