Thoughts from left field....

If I needed reminding (which I do not) of the critical role played by my good friend and colleague, Robert Skey, in the initial specification of SSDN/Glow (when we worked together on the project from 2002 through to 2004), I got that reminder in an enjoyable email conversation we had today. I remember arriving in the Scottish Executive in late 2001 thinking I knew quite a bit about ICT and about technology trends generally. My illusions were checked considerably when I met the intelligence and the 'left-field' thinking of Robert. He had a real power-user's knowledge of the new technologies (but, as he acknowledged himself at the time, little knowledge of education). At least I could lay some claim to the converse, so we made a good team in that embryonic period for SSDN/Glow. His natural diffidence means that he would probably prefer me to quote him anonymously, but it goes against the grain for me not to give credit where it is due! So, a couple of questions (amongst others) that Robert posed for me in our conversation today: .1. The fusion of humans and technology and the impact of this on social class - do we create an underclass of people who do not adopt the synthesis through their fear of technology and if so, who from today's generation are these future underclass. You? me? This was in the context of a discussion about the digital divide. Robert also had some interesting views around the possibility that, unlike the division between the economic haves and have-nots in the non-virtual world, poverty may not always be a significant factor in its digital equivalent. The current ubiquity of television and mobile phones (the poor seem to have pretty equal access to these) possibly presages a time soon when access to the Web will be more or less universal via ubiquitous and cheap hardware and networks, and the only real losers will be those who, for whatever reason, choose not to join. An interesting thought. 2. Privacy. Modern ICT users are the least private of any generation (blogs, webcams, flickr libraries, google, etc) yet we live in a world built on fear of identity theft and the shadow of our neighbour. Is this simply because the youth know better and the statesmen have yet to adapt to a modern world built on different principles of privacy? How might this affect future laws and modes of society? The balance in our society between a desire for privacy and a wish for personal and collective openness does seem to be shifting in favour of the latter, although I feel there is still a long way to go before this issue crystallizes one way or another. I'll be thinking about these thoughts of Robert's..... Technorati Tags: privacy, digital divide, Glow, SSDN, social class, technology

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© John Connell
The views expressed in this weblog are entirely my own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other individuals or organizations. All sources will be fully acknowledged.