User-land: Difference between revisions
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But most importantly, user-land consists of real human users, not geeks. To a real human user, the most important thing about his computer is that it be easy to use and use the same words to mean the same things, like Mac or Windows or his phone, not 3000 different words in 30 colours like a typical web site. The price of the computer matters, too, and its operating system being so reliable they never have to know what the word "crash" means. Hardware and the exact words used on the screen matter much more than whether [[free software]] is under it, which the smartest child of the user might learn how to read and change in 20 years, if and only if they can get a job as a [[cheap outsourced coder]] with that skill. Meanwhile, the user must work at a real job to get the money to pay for the computer, the education, and keeping the electricity on and that child fed. | But most importantly, user-land consists of real human users, not geeks. To a real human user, the most important thing about his computer is that it be easy to use and use the same words to mean the same things, like Mac or Windows or his phone, not 3000 different words in 30 colours like a typical web site. The price of the computer matters, too, and its operating system being so reliable they never have to know what the word "crash" means. Hardware and the exact words used on the screen matter much more than whether [[free software]] is under it, which the smartest child of the user might learn how to read and change in 20 years, if and only if they can get a job as a [[cheap outsourced coder]] with that skill. Meanwhile, the user must work at a real job to get the money to pay for the computer, the education, and keeping the electricity on and that child fed. | ||
Trying to use '''geek-net''' to figure out the problems of '''user-land''' has an obvious [[systemic bias]]. The only way to make up for this is to do serious [[research]] on the needs of real people, and give more credibility and status to those who do this research, than those who spout their own opinions. When this is not available, [[NGO]] and [[political party]] positions might be necessary to fill the gaps until more firsthand [[field report]]s are available from real '''user-land'''. | Trying to use '''geek-net''' to figure out the problems of '''user-land''' has an obvious [[systemic bias]]. The only way to make up for this is to do serious [[research]] on the needs of real people, and give more credibility and status (e.g. via a [[revert currency]] system) to those who do this research, than those who spout their own opinions. It may also be necessary to create a [[power structure]] that puts [[developing-world user]]s with [[language barrier]]s reporting ''their'' [[community point of view]] with more power. When someone is reporting only their own view, presumably, this is not quite so important. Also, a [[developed-world user]] is inherently more priveleged and to reduce the [[systemic bias]] they should be disadvantaged relative to those from poorer places. To equalize access based on language, sticking to simple [[glossary]] and [[Simple English]] vocabulary and phrases may really help. | ||
When the actual views of real developing nations users is not available, [[NGO]] and [[political party]] positions might be necessary to fill the gaps until more firsthand [[field report]]s are available from real '''user-land'''. | |||