While working on my term paper I read two books, one library and computer focused, the other just computer focused. Both were good in their own ways and may be of interest to some of you.
If you want to know about digital libraries, From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure by Christine Borgman is a good place to start. The book was published in 2000 but is only a little dated. Much of what Borgman discusses is still an issue. I’m glad I read it late in the quarter because I could by then tick off the list of issues she goes over as we discussed them in class. In fact, it really helped bring everything together into a whole picture instead of the bits and pieces that form over the course of reading various articles on a single topic over the weeks. Borgman offers a fantastic historical perspective too. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in what digital libraries are or what is going on in digital libraries.
The other book, The Unfinished Revolution by Michael Dertouzos is nothing short of a call to arms to change the face of technology. He says people have been slaves to their computers for far too long. We change the way we work and think in order to make our computers happy. We waste too much time working through convoluted processes to make things work. It doesn’t have to be this way he asserts. And he would know, Dertouzos was the Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science from 1974-2001. He was also involved in the creation of the World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that developed international standards for the web.
Computers and computer design needs to become human-centered. Computers need to serves us, not we them. Yes, he gets a little wild in flights of fancy, imaging what computers that serve us would be and do. He imagines we will be able to talk to our computers ala Star Trek, but notes that your computer will be listening to you all the time and saying “Computer!” to get its attention is a bad idea. If you are talking with a friend and say “the computer shut down”, your computer will hear you and shut down. Therefore, when we can talk to our computers, we need to choose a word that we don’t use in everyday conversation. He imagines himself saying, “Shazam!” to get his computer’s attention. Can you imagine having business colleagues over to dinner and over the salad saying, “Shazam! It’s too cold, raise the temperature by five degrees.” Way to impress the boss.
Nonetheless, it is an interesting book. It is fun to imagine what computers can do for us, and if they really were human-centered, how much they can free up our time for other things like, oh, I dunno, reading. You don’t have to be a techie to enjoy this book but you should to be interested in computers otherwise it might be a bit dull.
If Dertouzos wants to make computers as easy as driving a car then I think he is dreaming. Cars go forwards and backwards and the front wheels turn a bit right and left. That’s about it. A computer can do a billion calculations per second. Their whole value comes from giving us the ability to do extremely complex things we can’t do ourselves. And since humans enjoy being in the driver’s seat, as it were, running computers is always going to be complex. I don’t see another way without dumbing them down severely. Having a million options can be overwhelming at times but I think our desire to do things our way is stronger. If it didn’t sell, it wouldn’t be the situation we have now. Apple has tried the simple, elegant approach and it obviously hasn’t caught on. If little kids can use regular computers, can there be much of a problem?
Some reviews say he envisions voice input and video output. I find video slow. I would rather scan text than sit through a video that may or may not have what I’m looking for. Text rules! 😉
But I don’t suppose any predictions about technology will come anywhere close to reality. I look forward to continued surprise.
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The Dertouzos sounds quite intriguing. I think we put an untenable weight on technology to solve all our problems. Have you ever read any of the books that talk about the fact that we are now in the post-humanist period, Stefanie? They might make an interesting counterpart to the notion of the digital library. The one I’d recommend is How We Became Posthuman by Katharine Hayles. It’s very interesting stuff.
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Actually, just checked and it’s Katherine, not Katharine – sorry! 🙂
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Sylvia, I like a woman with a strong opinion 😉 I think Dertouzos meant well, but you are right, he did want to simplify computers, he thought they provided too many options for any one person. have you seen Pranav Mistry’s invention? In my opinion that is human-centered technology but nothing like Dertouszos imagined.
Litlove, he is an interesting fellow. I do think you are right that we expect technology to solve everything, but then that is the line we’ve been fed from scientists all these years. I have not read anything on the post-human. I will definitely look for Katherine Hayles’ book. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Ooo, yes, they BOTH sound very good! As far as that car analogy goes, I really do think we ought to do away with the “multiple ways to accomplish one task” aspect of computers. I mean, to reverse a car, you just put it in reverse. You don’t have five different ways of reversing a car, but maybe that’s just because I’m getting older, and my memory is not what it used to be, and I don’t like crowding up what little space I have left in my brain with five different ways to accomplish the same task. And I really do think computers could be more intuitive. Almost every program’s “help” function is a joke as far as I’m concerned. I can never seem to find exactly what I need.
P.S. Sorry, but Ive just realized I’m about to clog up your blog with comments on everything you posted while I was away.
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Heh. I wish everyone liked a woman with a strong opinion!
I agree with Emily—redundancy can be overdone. It’s nice to have keystroke options but otherwise I could do without a multiplicity of menus and toolbars and popups to do the same thing. At least it would be nice to be able to suppress the input modes we don’t like. I like text menus, so I’m not happy with Microsoft’s migration to all graphical controls (the “ribbon”). I suppose it works better for more visual people, but it would be nice to have a choice. Oh dear, there I go complicating things again! This is how it happens.
That Sixth Sense thing is TOTALLY AWESOME!! (Sorry, I revert to the 80’s when I get excited.) As a biologist I can imagine the value of something like that for identifying plants and animals, though that would be a much more complicated process than identifying a packaged product. Not sure I want my online profile to be projected on my chest, though! 😀
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The computers book sounds interesting to me. I’m not even entirely sure of the ways that computers make us change the way we work and how they could be improved. Working with computers seems so natural to me now that I have a hard time imagining how they could be otherwise. That book would give me lots of examples, I’m sure!
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Emily, your comments could never be a clog! I think part of the trouble with computers is that one computer tries to be everything to all people so it offers five different options to meet every style and preference. I totally agree that the help function in most programs is totally useless. Nonetheless I still try it first before going to Google for help.
Sylvia, being able to do a little customizing and selecting of preferences would be a nice thing. I too hate the “ribbon.” I prefer text drop downs and keyboard shortcuts and the ribbon complicates things in my opinion. I thought you’d like the Sixth Sense (and 80’s exclamations are perfectly fine!). I hope in a few years we can have one, though I’m with you and don’t think I’ll have my online profile projected on my chest.
Dorothy, computers are insidious that way so we don’t even notice the things we do differently because of them. It’s a good thing they aren’t sentient or we’d be in big trouble!
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