From an Annoyance to an Innovation

Have you ever typed a captcha/re-captcha?  That’s one of those things that you usually  need to type in to a website to prove that you are a human.  Mostly they’re a couple of words, or a bunch of characters, that are distorted a bit, so that a computer can’t read it.  It keeps spammers out of sites and prevents them from doing things like fake bids on eBay, buying bulk tickets on Ticketek, joining lots of email accounts for spam purposes and stuff.

Annoying aren’t they?

Well, I found this wonderful YouTube video of a presentation by Luis von Ahn, who is the inventor of the captcha.

Captcha/Re-Captcha technology is being used to digitise both the New York Times archive and books that are out of copyright, by using the words that the OCR (optical character recognition) programmes cannot read as captcha words.  They estimate that there are about 35 million words per day being “translated” by using captchas.

It’s just another example of how technology, when used innovatively, can take something that is an every day annoyance that we have to have, and turn it into something that benefits us as a whole.

An Unconscious Objection?

Looking back across the links I had saved on my Twitter feed to read later, I came across this really engaging article by UK journalist Suzanne Moore, on the perception that social media and “real life” are two separate entities.  One of the things I’m really passionate about as a social media user and a librarian, is ensuring people who choose not to engage in using the internetf, particularly in a social, collaborative way, are making an informed choice, rather than simply blanket banning it from their lives because they don’t understand it, don’t like change or see it as some kind of fad that teenagers indulge in.  Suzanne, like me, is not of the digital generation, those who were born into a world post personal computing.  As she says:

Having spent much of my adolescence sitting on an actual wall waiting for something to happen, a Facebook wall doesn’t seem so awful.

In an age where people of all ages are time poor and technology rich, it makes no difference to them how they interact with their peers, so long as they do.

Of course, there are still those who are on the other side of a digital divide out of lack of resources rather than choosing to ignore it, and we still have an obligation to those as our customers to enable them to cross over with technology and skills we provide in libraries.

But how many of those who make a choice to ignore the digital realm are making an informed choice?  Do they know what is available to them?  Do they understand just how much of our culture and services are unavailable to them by their opting out of the digital realm?

In a time where resources for employment, health, education, housing and all other aspects of our basic lives are moving more and more to online formats, does the average objecter to the internet realise that their objection will likely put them at a disadvantage to those who choose to use online resources?  Take searching for rental accommodation for example.  How often are rental properties let far before they ever get displayed in the windows of real estate agents or on rental listing sheets these days?

Many people say they feel a sense of isolation in today’s world, but also reject the option of engaging in social activity in a digital format.  Are they aware of the possibilities that could be open to them if they were to use online resources?  Suzanne Moore says in her article:

When I lost my passport in Cambodia I turned to Twitter. And I received help from people in Phnom Penh, friends at home and a man from Channel 4 News. You can ask Twitter to recommend a nice pub or walk. Just now I asked it what to do with kale and now have lots of weird and wonderful kale recipes.

More and more

Don’t tell me this is somehow not the real world. It is an enhancement of it and those who I have met through social media have been a delight. The notion that one may be too busy recording and recounting one’s experience to be actually enjoying the moment is being tested. If we feel that nothing is happening unless it is witnessed then this is indeed a massive shift in consciousness.

The world is opening up to us more and more every day.  I myself have travelled halfway across the globe to meet people that I had never met before, but knew very well via the internet.  Over three months I stayed in 11 different homes of people in the US and Canada, only two of which I had actually met before.  The only place where I felt unhappy, homesick or uncomfortable was in one of the homes of someone I had met before (the other person I knew before was my oldest friend of over 20 years who had returned to Canada some years before).  Everywhere that I met people in “reality” for the first (I prefer to say that I physically met them, instead of digitally!) I found that they were just like they appeared to be online, they were as warm and welcoming and kind hearted face-to-face as they were online.

Just recently I travelled to Sydney for a conference to participate as a blogging activist, and present a paper from my perspective.  I would never have had this opportunity if it hadn’t been for my activity on the internet.  Not only would my writing not likely be published as broadly without many, many more years of work, but I wouldn’t have been introduced to the social justice movement and concepts that I now so passionately write about myself.  Meeting those who I had been tweeting, Facebooking, blogging and to a far lesser extent, emailing, face to face was easy as we’d already had the ice broken by months, even years of conversations and collaboration beforehand.

To me, it’s vitally important that those who resist joining the digital age do so armed with the information to make that decision consciously and conscientiously.  As Suzanne Moore says in her article:

Ignorance is not bliss. It’s stupid to be stupid.

Broadening Horizons

I gave an info session at a library the other day on eBooks, eReaders and other devices.  Most of the audience were seniors, people who were born long before the digital age and often find technology really daunting.  It’s my aim when I do these sessions to try to put those fears to rest, and get people excited about playing with technology.  It’s why the sessions end up going far longer than planned, because I invariably end up sitting talking one on one with the attendees, answering all of their questions.

I noticed that several of the participants had visual or hearing impairments, mobility issues or other physical challenges like arthritis that affect their ability to get out of the house and do a lot of things that we younger, able-bodied folk take for granted.  Things like doing the weekly grocery shopping for themselves, or socialising with people for an adult conversation, or simply going to the library to borrow books.

This doesn’t just apply to the elderly, but all sorts of people for various reasons.  Those with disabilities, stay at home parents of young children, shift workers, those in remote areas or even those who do not have decent transport options.

This is where technology can really open up their world.  Grocery shopping can be done online and delivered to the door in most urban areas, as well as a plethora of other online shopping options for everything from books to clothes to health care… you name it.  Many library services have home delivery services of some kind, where customers can reserve books online, use databases and downloads and find information about the other services that the library may offer.  No matter what your hobby or interest is, you will always find a community on the internet to fit you.  You can get adult conversation, articles and discussion at any time, night or day.

I can’t think of anything better than a smart phone or tablet PC to help someone who needs to carry a lot of information but can’t be carrying a lot of items.  I personally have a terrible short term memory, and would be lost without my iPhone, because it has my contacts, calendar/appointments, shopping list, bus/train timetables, notes, banking and of course my music.  All can be held in the palm of my hand, carried in my pocket or in a handbag.  It’s not heavy, is easy to use and doesn’t have any fiddly buttons.  Yes, I know I’m an Apple fangirl, but there are other devices that could serve the same purpose.

Technology has the potential to open a person’s world up when they are restricted for any reason.  It gives people an independence and freedom that they may otherwise have to rely on other people to handle for them.

With our help as librarians, we can open up this world for our customers.  By giving them the skills to use technologies, and dispelling any fears they may have, we’re contributing to changing people’s lives.

Have you seen any examples where online or computer technology has broadened someone’s horizons?  Have you found that yours have been broadened by technology?  Feel free to share in the comments.