Bringing Web 2.0 to the mainstream

Don Crowley didn't consider himself a nerd two years ago. But now that he does social bookmarking, subscribes to feeds and posts videos online he can't deny that status any longer. His concern isn't with being labeled a geek though, rather it's with the 'normal people' who aren't getting the full benefit of these advances in technology -

"So what about the village fair 2.0, the musical society, the oldtime automobile club in your area? They could go nuts using this stuff. But they don't, because they don't have a clue in most cases about what is possible or how easy it is to learn.

I want to get some of these clubs and societies together for a few weeks and show them how to build a blog, get them adding photos and videos, grazr widgets with relevant rss news, maybe get some members on twitter and aggregating their remarks etc. at live events."

It sounds to me like Don is thinking about something along similar lines to the Share IT programme, but with a community rather than corporate focus. And, as with Share IT, he plans to have the learning materials generated by the initiative shared with the public.

Of course there are a number of ways a programme like this could be implemented and, while you can't beat a classroom style setup, remote mentoring is, I believe, becoming an increasingly realistic option.

Over the last few years all of my siblings have 'got on the net', two of them have broadband and one of them even has a second PC (laptop) for the kitchen. Of course, being the 'computer guy' in the family I've always been on-call for any troubleshooting required. In the past this usually meant frustrating phone calls attempting to extract precise descriptions of the problem and convey clear instructions, often followed in exasperation with physical call-outs.

Then I recently discovered LogMeIn's brilliant remote control solution which has transformed computer support for this family. In fact it's become a pleasure. Instead of struggling with communication we can now focus on the snag. And in fact, because guidance is so much easier it normally doesn't end at solving the problem, instead becoming a short training session on how to deal with a certain facet of computer usage. In other words, instead of being the 'fix it' guy I've become the 'training' guy.

Like Don I believe there's a huge amount of latent benefit to be gleaned by the typical home computer user and community/society/club, especially in terms of moving further towards the producer side of the prosumer spectrum. And I'm sure remote training can be an important element of the solution.

Comments

[Tom Morris]

This is one of the reasons that I'm involved in things like XML and the Semantic Web - because I think of it as the glue code that can bring all these services together. Clubs, societies and other local groups could benefit from a lot of this technology.

I think we need case studies of small voluntary groups trying it out to persuade others of the validity of this kind of approach.

[James Corbett]

Good point Tom. Don, is that part of your plan - to publish case studies?

[Bob Warfield]

The other thing to consider is how different Personality Types gravitate to different Web 2.0 styles. I don't think it's a function of using every Web 2.0 "feature" if you are "up to speed." It's more like there are different features that fit for different personality styles.

I've written a 2-part blog article on this concept that starts here:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/what-personality-type-is-your-web-20-fave-part-2-of-web-20-personality-types/

[Don Crowley]

Actually I want to just get out there and do it... But with a bit of pre planning. I'd like to pre-publish ideas, and create presentations, show what is possible and get people excited. In my case I would go to the village newspaper, get in contact with a number of societies and give demos, over a period of a few weeks. Demo 1 might be show them what is possible. Demo 2 (live) setting up a blog, flickr and youtube account for a club, show how to upload stuff. Demo 3, show google maps, maybe twitter and how to use it at live event, how to use rss. But I don't want to show them RSS hacks :-D we'll leave that for the advanced class a year later.

Point is I'd like to discuss ideas about what and how it could be done. I'll have to do it in dutch where I live, but if the audience were ok about it I might be able to video it and stick it online with voice overs.