Futurist Paul Saffo on the "User Experience"

File generally under the topic of Politics 2.0.

Link to August 3 New York Times article, "Hail to the Twitterer". (The title of the article has been changed to "McCain, the Analog Candidate" online.)

Excerpt:

Computers have become something of a cultural marker — in politics and in the real world. Proficiency with them suggests a basic familiarity with the day-to-day experience of most Americans — just as ignorance to them can suggest someone is “out of touch,” or “old.”

“We’re not asking for a president to answer his own e-mail,” said Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley futurist who teaches at Stanford. “We’re asking for a president who understands the context of what e-mail means.”

The “user experience,” Mr. Saffo said, brings with it an implicit understanding of how the country lives, and where it might be heading. As Mr. McCain would lack this, he would also be deficient in this broader appreciation for how technology affects lives.

Public libraries are keeping up

Link to August 3 Appleton Post-Crescent article. (Sub-headline: Fox Cities facilities evolving with technology, patrons' needs.)

Excerpt:

Over the past two decades, Wendy McMorrow has seen the public library grow and change alongside her four children, who range in age from 20 to 12.

When McMorrow's two oldest were young, the family waited in line for librarians to check out their materials. Now, McMorrow and her two youngest, who visit the Appleton Public Library together a few times per month, typically scan their items at a self-check machine.

"There'll be a line waiting for the actual person to do it for you. We just go over there," said McMorrow, 47, of Darboy. "It's faster and very easy, and the directions are right there."

Modern libraries, including those in the Fox Cities, must be active on two fronts — preserving familiar and traditional services while providing the latest in technology and innovations.

Article includes quotes from Appleton Public Library Assistant Director Barbara Kelly, Neenah Public Library Director Stephen Proces, and Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library Director Barbara Wentzel.

Continuing Education Topic Alert for Libraries

Knowing What It's Like to Be Elderly

Picture credit: Kirk Irwin for The New York Times

Picture caption: Kim Burns, right, and colleagues at Westminster Thurber devised a driving route while wearing glasses that blurred their vision.

Link to August 3 New York Times article, "Simulating Age 85, With Lessons on Offering Care".

Excerpts:

As the population in the developing world ages, simulation programs like Xtreme Aging have become a regular part of many nursing or medical school curriculums, and have crept into the corporate world, where knowing what it is like to be elderly increasingly means better understanding one’s customers or even employees — how to design signs or instrument panels, how to make devices more usable.......

Dr. Rosebrook, 55, said she started Xtreme Aging three years ago after a teenage clerk at a hotel joked about her husband being a member of AARP. “We all started sharing experiences and realizing things that we perceived as discrimination,” she said......

To approximate the state of people entering a nursing home, she asked each participant to write down five favorite possessions, five cherished freedoms and three loved ones on Post-it notes. Then one-by-one she asked members of the group to part with a possession, a freedom or a person: a car here, a husband there, freedom of travel next — until all that anyone had left were two possessions.

I wonder if they have a library rate. The article notes that Xtreme Aging's cost is $60 per participant. I suspect there are cheaper alternative out there.

Testimonial from http://www.caring.com/: What I Wish I'd Known, by Peg Gordon (An "aging sensitivity" teacher learned what's wrong with nursing homes when her grandmother was admitted to one.)

Link to ALA Services to Older Adults.