What starts out to be a warm-fuzzy grandmother-meets-the-Internet story, Fredericksburg.com - The majority of Americans are online, turns out to be a broader view of Digital Divide issues...much of which is re-hashed from Pew Internet studies. There is at least one interesting highlight:
Andy Carvin, director of the Digital Divide Network is quoted,
"The problem is that we haven't found a language yet to explain to the general public and the policymakers the connection between Internet access and Internet skills and their importance in the lives of the community and community development and educational prosperity."
- What Andy describes as a lack of appropriate language has roots in the details of the article:
- If you did not grow up in the PC generation, you are less likely to see the need to use computers
- If you are over 50, you are in the least likely category of individuals to use a computer
Well, guess what?!...those two items alone describe demographics of too many senior level policy makers. If you take the story full circle from the 90 year-old grandmother, now armed with email because of a grandson who showed her how it worked...let's find more (senior) policymakers who have Internet savy grandchildren and suggest/demand that their grandchildren become technical advisors!
OK, so I am being facetious...but I wouldn't rule out the prospects of positive outcomes from such an effort. Here's the scenario: before electing/appointing any more 50+ individuals to technologically influential positions, let's see a list of computer skills that their grandchildren have mastered....call it the techno-litmus test (TLT), and give it a 1 to 10 scale. Any candidate with a sub-6 TLT gets rebooted (unless the candidate can explain what getting rebooted means in geek-speak). I regress...