I have often sat at the red light of street intersection, as empty and devoid of activity as a still life painting. I have waited for the light to change green for what seemed long enough to paint an actual still life of the intersection, even with my needing to take art lessons first. Worse is when I am on a motorcycle and it isn’t recognized by the light sensor so I sit and watch the lights cycle by until finally, I trot over to the pedestrian “walk” button and give it a press. Then I run back to my bike like a bobble-head doll in my helmet to get through the green when it arrives.
Now I have an app on my phone that allows me to report roadway malfunctions and disrepair, including the ability to send a photo of some pothole that has sucked the front left wheel off my car, or so it seemed.
This is the progress we have made in our communication. It used to be that when I bought a product that worked awesome, for 37 seconds, my means of complaining and making my experience known where limited and cumbersome. I could call the manufacturer and traverse 37 phone menus, one for each second the product worked, only to then be given an opportunity to exercise my nonexistent Hindi language speaking skills with a support person. I could spend time and effort writing and sending a letter to the company which generally proved to be the rough equivalent of writing a letter to Santa Claus with the notable exception that letters to Santa Claus are treated with an endearing respect by the post office. There was also the possibility of complaining to various consumer protection groups and government agencies, all of which would cost more in time than the original product was worth in the first place.
Today I click a virtual button online, type a few lines and anyone considering buying the same product now has the information available to them that they can expect a full 37 seconds of blissful product use for their money should they choose to actually make purchase. Of course I can also take great pleasure in being able to instantly communicate a good review for a product that has worked as expected, or better, as well.
Other great examples of this instant feedback benefit are that I can submit my opinion of call quality to my on-line phone service for each call with a simple click of the mouse, most online articles these days provide for reader response right there at the bottom of the article and my computer can fire off a complete list of symptoms to some mechanized medical center for circuitry based beings when it is sick. Our ability to have a near real time conversation with each other and the product and service providers we deal with is unprecedented. We now have the ability to collaborate like never before in conveying our ideas, providing our input to better products and services and weeding out those that are inferior.
All of this is coming at a tremendous pace which is a double edged sword. On one hand our rapid progress means that these benefits are available to anyone who wants to experience them now, or maybe tomorrow, not two generations or more down the line. On the other edge of the sword there are a large number of people feeling left behind because technology is moving faster than they can, or want, to keep up. We also have technology being used by people who have little understanding of how it works or the implications of using it. Our technology is moving faster than people can be trained in its use and the ramifications of using it inappropriately.
The advent of a changing landscape without a structured plan for implementing the changes has created a situation roughly equivalent of going to bed at home and waking up in a foreign land with nothing more than bed linens and the pajamas being worn at the time. In most cases the only guides available are those having a vested interest in what is learned in this new place. These biased guides would have a person learn only what is needed to ensure their products and services are profitable and often reshape the language of this unfamiliar virtual landscape to meet their needs, leaving the new arrivals unable to good decisions. Worse yet are the confidence games so cleverly run on the new arrivals they are entirely unaware they are being taken, or even the value of what has been lost. These are the hazards of awakening in a new land without a map or guide that are manifesting today.
Consider any parallel of making an uninformed leap and it would seem foolish to take on voluntarily. Jumping off a randomly driven boat to deep sea dive with no knowledge of what lay beneath or any training in diving, going for a long walk in the desert with no compass or instruction on survival strategies, boldly investing one’s life savings with no guidance or research, none of these are a good idea. Nor is any other manner of blindly blazing into something new with no guidance or training a good idea. This practice, without fail, will result in a difficult time and likely some form of loss. Why then do folks jump fully into this new technology landscape without a guide? The answer is not difficult, there are few credible technology advocates and throngs of self-interested guides to provide an illusion of understanding for the participants. As in the earlier analogy most of these opportunistic guides have something to gain in leading the new adventurer through the more perilous routes.
There is but one starting point for conquering a new frontier, education. Once educated to the hazards the proper tools to match the journey can be selected by the journeyer rather than relying on a self-interested guide peddling whatever they can sell regardless of need. Once equipped with even a basic understanding of the environment to be traveled, and outfitted with the correct tools, anyone can travel with confidence, a substantiated confidence, in the route they plot.
That then is the goal of this book, to provide that unbiased starting point so that an appropriate route can be mapped and the right tools selected to make the journey safely.