The Myth of "Information Have Nots"

I am sick and tired of reading about "Information Haves" and "Information Have Nots": the myth that some people will have access to technology and some will not. This is demonstrably false reasoning. Every household has a television, every household has a telephone, cellular phone penetration is high, video recorders and personal computers are widespread. And all of these devices will soon come with a Web browser built-in as companies such as the Netscape off-shoot Navio look to enable every household and office device with web access, even things like petrol pumps (see www.navio.com).

Ubiquitous web browsers mean that everyone has the opportunity to set up a Web business and benefit from the very low entry barriers to access to the Internet and put up a home page and such like. Gangs could put up information regarding their activities, try to justify their actions and if it is interesting and widely read they can then turn themselves into a brand, with logos, clothing, attract publicity from non-Web media etc. and build a web business from there.

Information access and publishing access will be universal and as ever what it will come down to is who uses the technology and to what extent. Furthermore, whilst having your own computer from an early age is clearly an advantage in terms of familiarity, the Web browser interface is so intuitive and simple that five minutes training is sufficient for you to be up and surfing the Net. Neither do you have to know how to program HTML to set up your own web pages, you can save documents in Web format and use a freely downloaded web page creation package to get up and running.

Information access has nothing to do with demographics and everything to do with attitude. You may think that you are at a disadvantage and not try to use the technology. And you can have all of the toys and not know or effectively use them. If you can generate interesting content, you can distribute it and others can access it. What will determine success in the unorganized world is not Information Haves and Have Nots, it is Talent Have and Have Nots.

Author: Simon Buckingham

What do you think?

To make a comment to the author, send e-mail to simon@unorgan.com

 

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