Message-ID: <337A5FA2.2649@yale.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 20:58:11 -0400
From: DJR <daniel.ryan@yale.edu>
Reply-To: daniel.ryan@yale.edu
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: virtual communities -- a skeptical note
References: <199705142229.PAA28822@cheetah.it.wsu.edu>
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I suspect that access alone is not the issue.  People for whom
technology solves "real problems" are easily convinced that the
solutions that are relevant to them would also be relevant to those
"less fortunate" than themselves.  In other words, we project our
problems and our solutions (and even more so when we are purveyors of
the solutions) onto others rather than trying to understand the actual
situation of others.

In my work in New Haven I've been impressed by how much the internet is
a solution in search of a problem.  

My ground rule is that the first step has to be to clearly articulate
the problem at hand and then to explain why and how the technology is
the right tool for the job. Think about it: where in the hierarchy of
problems facing a poor family would you find the ones for which email is
a good solution?

-- 
Dan Ryan
Yale University
Insitution for Social and Policy Studies
P.O. Box 208209
New Haven, CT  06520-8209

daniel.ryan@yale.edu
New Haven On Line http://statlab.stat.yale.edu/nhol