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| Jefferson's
Laptop: Modern Musings on User Interfaces for Universal Creativity by Ben Shneiderman
If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, his laptop would probably be filled with manuscripts and e-mail written while flying the shuttle to New York and Boston. Jefferson's laptop would accompany him at meetings on the national information infrastructure and conferences on freedom of speech on the Internet. His writings would provoke spirited political discussions among the conferees, and then he would talk about getting back to his Virginia home. The "Sage of Monticello" built innovative furniture and office technologies, so his modern counterpart might test alternative satellite dishes and develop a Web site. Although we may deplore that Jefferson, like many of his contemporaries, focused on land-owning white males, a modern Jefferson probably would share currently popular views about the equality of women and minorities. An Internet-age Jefferson would have remarkably diverse interests, but his passions might focus on these three issues: universal service, educational technology and easy access to government information. I imagine that Jefferson's laptop would contain cogent arguments about why public discussion of these three issues is needed. Universal Service I think Jefferson would want citizens to engage in public debates and online discussions about many topics, including the role of universal service in preserving democracy and republican government. While Jefferson might have resisted saying that "all citizens should be networked equally," he might have written a modern version of:
Universal service, a term taken from telephony policy, is meant to suggest that every citizen has access to the Internet, its information resources, online communities, and the growing number of services. Universal service is often interpreted as an economic, legal and policy issue, but it has user interface design and technical implementation components. User interfaces consist of the screen designs, pointing devices, menus, buttons, instructions and error messages that enable users to accomplish their goals. Interfaces that are cluttered, use technical terms, or have poorly written instructions will limit usage to those with extensive computer experience. I think Jefferson would be campaigning for design guidelines that accommodate poor readers, citizens for whom English is a second language, and those with minimal computer experience. He would probably push for designs that accommodate handicapped users and those whose low-cost computers did not include the latest features. He would respect the needs of citizens who could only afford slow network access, and make it possible for them to avoid graphics-laden pages. Jefferson understood the importance of education and a free press as supports for democratic processes, and his modern self would likely anticipate that well-designed interfaces and free Internet access would do the same for citizen participation. Jefferson's meticulous planning skills would probably be applied to the implementation process for Web-based services. He would ensure high accuracy, timely updates and e-mail access to maintenance staff for resolving problems and suggesting improvements. Assistance for users would be conveniently available by e-mail, telephone and in person at community centers or libraries. While national commissions and declarations are all in favor of universal service, most commercial providers of services and government agencies fall short in addressing users' needs. Educational Technology for Students The universal service principle is closely tied to ensuring successful educational uses of Internet technology for students. Jefferson wanted to be remembered for his role in founding the University of Virginia, and he was devoted to educational institutions:
While President Clinton has promoted Internet access to every classroom and promulgated policies to reduce connection charges for schools, this is only the first layer of the foundation. A Jeffersonian solution would have focused on state-level initiatives and included a more comprehensive framework: hardware and software acquisition, training for teachers, innovative educational curricula attuned to Internet resources, infrastructure maintenance support, and continuing evaluations to guide future decisions. Access to the Internet is not a sufficient educational philosophy. New forms of collaborative education are needed to emphasize constructive teamwork in the classroom and communications with others outside the classroom. Service-oriented, inquiry-based and authentic projects are some of the components of the emerging educational philosophies. The goal of technology is not just to enable access to information, but to collaborate with others in creating something new and useful. Our modern Jefferson might write: "It's not enough to teach children to surf the net, we have to teach them to make waves." Easy Access To Government Information Jefferson's third passion would likely be easy access to government information. His visionary statement is still relevant:
Jefferson believed that government should be a resource for the dissemination of information. He valued libraries, and when the British burned the Library of Congress in 1812, he provided his collection of 6,487 books as the basis for a new library. Jefferson would be a supporter of online digital library communities that supplemented books and multimedia documents with discussion groups and lively communications among those with shared interests from farming to medicine. Jefferson would probably also want online access to government officials to make them more responsive to citizens and reduce the potential corruptions of power. He would celebrate the THOMAS system, built by the Library of Congress, to provide citizen access to the full text of bills before Congress, updated daily (http://thomas.loc.gov). It enables citizen groups to participate in shaping legislation and to read the primary documents that shape policy. Jefferson would be delighted with the five million photos, documents and videos that are going into the American Memory Web site, built by the Library of Congress National Digital Library program (http://www.loc.gov). The 200 collections include Walt Whitman's manuscripts, Mathew Brady's Civil War photos, Edison's early films, Leonard Bernstein's papers, and 23 Presidential libraries. The National Archives, National Libraries of Agriculture and Medicine, NASA and other agencies are building ambitious Web sites, but insufficient coordination and inadequate search methods make it hard for high school teachers, students, journalists and ordinary citizens to find what they want. Collecting information is, of course, only the starting point for action and creative work. Tools for creativity, consultation and dissemination are beginning to emerge, but the cyber-frontier is still largely unexplored. Jefferson might designate each one of us to be modern versions of Lewis and Clark to report back by e-mail on what we find and recommend how best to use the vast resources of the cyber-frontier. Ben Shneiderman is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, head of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil), and member of the Institutes for Advanced Computer Studies & for Systems Research, all at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author of Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (third edition 1998), Addison-Wesley Publishers, Reading, MA. He worked for the Library of Congress on the THOMAS and the American Memory Web sites. (ben@cs.umd.edu) |
