The Technologies of Self Esteem in the Process of Collaborative Content Creation
Self Esteem and Collaboration
I recognise that this is not an easy argument to follow, so let me again sum up where we are: although our current technologies for self expression are problematic, we must harness them for content creation because that is the area of production where humans are likely in the foreseeable future to perform more effectively than machines; but, further, those who have narrow skills bases will not be able to create content autonomously but will need to collaborate.
Having put the argument this way I want to complete the circle by saying that the key to such collaboration is self esteem. So, first, the key aim of social policy and educational strategy must be to increase self esteem so that people can become involved in trusting relationships where they feel safe to admit that they need help, where they feel safe to question. Our way of doing this so far has be mechanistic and, consequently, near disastrous. The disadvantaged do not need clapped out 386s and the occasional visit from a community development worker, they need to know that the whole country is committed to enabling them to share in the benefits of a society based on mutuality. This is no plea for bogus community; I know that the middle classes who are always bleating about the need for community use their rising incomes to buy privacy; so if we don't want community for ourselves then there is no point sentimentally wishing it on somebody else. What we need to think about is personal, social commitment; instead of twinning with nice little French villages with boutique vineyards and German market towns with quaint religious festivals, we need to twin with communities at the other side of the tracks, communities with whom we share skylines, supermarkets and soccer stadiums though, of course, not schools! If we do not get this right, most of the rest, the technological, will be pretty irrelevant.
The second thing we need to do is to establish an ethics of ICT design as strict as the ethical principles behind the design of children's toys and medicines. If we are going to call something a communications technology then we must be clear that it can facilitate communication and not frustrate it.
Thirdly, the only way we will get an ethical code to stick is if it is tied to public procurement. The top 100 companies in the world could have forced Microsoft to produce higher quality goods but it never did; so could the EU, or the USA Federal Government. If our ICTs are going to be useful in helping the disadvantaged we will need to use the purchasing power of the public sector to force improvements.
Fourthly, that public procurement should insist that products are purchased which are fit for purpose; so if we want a simple word processor and Internet search engine it should not come with a massive bundle of superfluous applications.
Fifthly, we should radically alter our telephone tariff structure so that complex applications are server side, leaving client side applications so simple that users do not need installation technicians and assistance with upgrades. In the past decade it would have been cheaper for me to work server side, paying the telephone bills, instead of calling in a technician every time I was forced to undertake a hardware or software upgrade.
Finally, I want to return to self esteem. It lies at the root of everything. If we are making any kind of policy we have to see that we must wish for others what we would wish for ourselves. Changing the technology is a necessary but not a sufficient precondition for narrowing the digital divide; changing ourselves is much more important, and much more difficult.