Comments on: “Even If We’re Wrong, We’re Right” http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/even-if-were-wrong-were-right/ Reflections on the Web and Web 2.0 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:08:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Scott O'Raw http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/even-if-were-wrong-were-right/#comment-65336 Scott O'Raw Thu, 08 May 2008 18:15:48 +0000 http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/?p=657#comment-65336 Hi Brian, Just echoing Martin's sentiments here and to say that the debate is definitely enriched by your "caring" approach, as Martin puts it. It's all too easy to get swept away with the hype and imagine the digital utopia that technology offers. But <i>something</i>, I feel, has happened / is happening. I'll leave to the current poster boy of social media, Clay Shirky, to sum up better than I ever could: "Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won't have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan's Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing." Scott. P.S. Thanks for reading my post and quoting me. I am more than a little chuffed! :D Hi Brian,

Just echoing Martin’s sentiments here and to say that the debate is definitely enriched by your “caring” approach, as Martin puts it. It’s all too easy to get swept away with the hype and imagine the digital utopia that technology offers.

But something, I feel, has happened / is happening. I’ll leave to the current poster boy of social media, Clay Shirky, to sum up better than I ever could:

“Here’s something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here’s something four-year-olds know: Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won’t have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan’s Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.”

Scott.

P.S. Thanks for reading my post and quoting me. I am more than a little chuffed! :D

]]> By: Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/even-if-were-wrong-were-right/#comment-65331 Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) Thu, 08 May 2008 08:14:13 +0000 http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/?p=657#comment-65331 Hi Martin - You didn't come across as argumentative in our Twitter discussion - we're both aware of the limitations of the technology. And your post has helped clarify my understanding. Cheers! Hi Martin - You didn’t come across as argumentative in our Twitter discussion - we’re both aware of the limitations of the technology. And your post has helped clarify my understanding. Cheers!

]]> By: Martin http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/even-if-were-wrong-were-right/#comment-65330 Martin Thu, 08 May 2008 08:05:03 +0000 http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/?p=657#comment-65330 Hi Brian - I apologise for not expressing myself well on Twitter when we had the initial exchange. It made me appreciate the limitations of 140 characters and I think I came across as a bit aggressive or argumentative, which wasn't my intention. That's why we need blogs, to explain things in more detail. I don't disagree with your approach - I wouldn't say it was cautious but more that it was caring, you want to bring people with you and so have carefully considered their objections. I think this is the right thing to do - especially for IT services people who have to ensure all the dull stuff we observers can ignore, like uptime, reliability, etc. As Tony says on my blog, what I was arguing was really just a case of Amara's Law "We tend to overestimate the short term effect of a technology and underestimate its long term effect." Your last sentence sums it up prefectly. Hi Brian - I apologise for not expressing myself well on Twitter when we had the initial exchange. It made me appreciate the limitations of 140 characters and I think I came across as a bit aggressive or argumentative, which wasn’t my intention. That’s why we need blogs, to explain things in more detail. I don’t disagree with your approach - I wouldn’t say it was cautious but more that it was caring, you want to bring people with you and so have carefully considered their objections. I think this is the right thing to do - especially for IT services people who have to ensure all the dull stuff we observers can ignore, like uptime, reliability, etc. As Tony says on my blog, what I was arguing was really just a case of Amara’s Law “We tend to overestimate the short term effect of a technology and underestimate its long term effect.” Your last sentence sums it up prefectly.

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