Technology and Inclusion: The Blogger's Anxiety

Technology is great - it provides powerful tools to reach and communicate with people. I am trying to use new technologies more and learn to adapt the way I work to things like YouTube, podcasts and of course blogs. My anxiety is how do I retain my roots in the older forms of communication and how do I ensure that I do not exclude groups of people as I increasingly adopt new media?

More and more I see participatory projects start to engage and use new technologies. For example public consultations using online questionnaires, action research through tools such as SurveyMonkey, and forums. The opportunities to reach more people and provide 24 hour accessibility are very appealing.

The exciting thing is that you have the ability to have relationships and converse with lots of people. When putting a project together you can involve many people in the planning and capture their inputs. The problem is that many of the people I most want to interact with are not finding it easy to access the technology in the first place.

So where does that leave people who do not have easy access to computers and new technology? When we discuss this group we are often also referring to the most excluded and disadvantaged members of society. And how much of the basis of using new technology assumes a level of literacy that many people just do not have. What we must not do is create an underclass of people who are separated or cut off from what is going on in the virtual world.

This week I went to visit a local authority and spent some time in their general waiting area. They provide free access to their website and a range of other online material on housing, childcare and rights. The access points use touch screens and have large bright text and graphics. The resource was good but I wonder how much they are used and how much benefit they provide people. 

I also need to resolve the dilemma that my instinct is that people communicate best directly to other people. Written and electronic communication struggle to reproduce the human qualities inherent in direct interactions.  And we are all aware of the frustrations of dealing with recorded answer machines and automated call centres.

Sometimes it is important to be remind of the power of older technologies. These are the ones we often ignore or take for granted. One of the most innovative projects I have ever seen was in the Kyrgyz Republic, working with people trapped in the grim psychiatric hospitals. There communication with the outside world was a rare and often forbidden privilege. A local organisation (most of ex-service users) supplied pencils and stamped postcards to the patients to allow them to get messages out. Some wrote to family for the first time in years. Others wrote to make complaints. Many wrote to share poetry and their inner thoughts and feelings. All in their own way wrote to challenge the system

For the last year I have kept a monthly blog on the my website at www.stronger-and-more-effective.co.uk . It has been a learning experience and at times I have struggled to keep up with the demands of operating a blog and my busy working and home life (including my 18 month daughter).

So okay, I am deciding to raise my blogging presence by moving the blog to this new location and learning to use a new range of blogging tools. Ones that I hope will make it easier to regularly update the blog and keep this fresh. Let's see how it goes. I will have to remain vigilant about sharing the journey with my friends who use different communication routes.