Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!pyramid!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: glg@sfsup.UUCP (Gerry Gleason)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Why can't WE change society?
Message-ID: <1215@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 87 21:45:29 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: AT&T Information Systems
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

Malcolm Cohen points out that Usenet is nowhere near as diverse as
the real world is, and he is right, in part.  There are some dimensions 
that do not vary much in the Netnews community, probably mostly white 
males with technical educations.  On the other hand if you take a look 
at the political and religious groups, many points of view are represented,
from the middle to almost any extreme.  It could be more diverse from the 
standpoint of postings because people will be more likely to post if 
their viewpoint is not already represented (admitted some will continue 
to beat their point of view into the ground regardless).

Yes, there are some groups not represented at all, but that does not
mean it is not diverse.

As far as people not wanting to use computers; People did not *want* to 
use telephones very much at one time either, but that did not stop them 
from becoming so commonplace.

Malcolm also says that the development of Hypertext isn't `important'
to the real world around us.  Well, importance is not the same thing as 
being of interest.  The majority of the world knows nothing about and 
has no "interest" in modern technology.  Nevertheless it is important 
to them and does effect their live, whether they know it or not.  It's 
a "good thing" that Reagan and Gorbachev are talking about arms reductions 
this week, but these weapons do exist, and are important to everyone.  
Interest is another matter.

It is only recently that any societies had literacy rates over 10%, now
literacy is a necessary skill in many societies.  This trend will continue.
Hypertext will be important because it will reduce the monopoly of the
educated elite on information, just as the development of the printing
press did.  Maybe it won't be called hypertext, but that kind of access
to information will be available and important to everyone in the future.

Finally, bad interfaces are only 'unpleasant' because they waste your 
time, and, more importantly, thoughts.  I program computers for a living, 
and I stay away from ugly programs in a large part because they interfere 
with my thinking and fill my head with many useless details.  Give me a 
program that I can sit down to and use without looking up obscure details 
in the manual.  Call it ugliness and unpleasantness, or call it 
inefficiency, it the same thing.

Gerry Gleason