[wordup] Because we told them it would be different this time ...

[Adam Shand]

From: http://interconnected.org/home/2003_05_18_archive.shtml#200317732
More: http://www.oblomovka.com/entries/2003/04/15#1050462000

{ 2003.05.20 }

See, I keep coming back to what Danny said: "While I manage to fend off 
pop-up windows with Mozilla, and spam with Spamassassin, most people 
don't know about those programs". A bookmarklet to help you buy CDs by 
independent labels [via boingboing]? Or scanning barcodes with a 
cellphone to search for hidden product information?

So it's one experience for the people who know how to use the machinery, 
how to play the game, and a thoroughly unpleasant one for the people who 
don't know who to ask, or can't understand why they should even have to 
carry four bits of expensive electronics to avoid having their allergy 
triggered by badly designed packaging.

That's the worst kind of exclusionary tactics, isn't it? Using equality 
as an excuse to not teach those less able? And hypocritical?: living an 
online life unharrassed by blocked adverts, but paid for by those same 
ads on the eyeballs of those we don't let into our club? We use our 
knowledge for access to good, free software, but leave the rest to fend 
for themselves, having to put money into the hands of those we claim 
we're against. If we say we're pathfinding, exploring for the future, is 
that the same as dodging the responsibility to open these new abilities 
to everyone else? The people who have the knowledge have the best time; 
some people - inevitably - have less, and don't have such a good time. 
That's the way of the world, isn't it. That's the way it's always been.

Yeah, except: this time we said it would be different. Remember?