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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: Getting people to use computers effectively...
Message-ID: <1557@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Mon, 6-Apr-87 02:48:44 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1557
Posted: Mon Apr  6 02:48:44 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Apr-87 03:16:29 EST
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Organization: Amoco Production Co, Tulsa Research Center
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

Dan, I quite heartily agree with you.  Perhaps I might add that also a person
who is labeled "Computer Literate" or a "Guru" if he/she is really good is a
person who knows where to get the answer, where at least to start the search,
when a problem presents itself.

I am considered an 'expert' of sorts locally with the Amiga 1000.  I am not 
really a programmer nor an electronics expert.  I am just a person who knows
what resourses are available to an Amiga user. 

I recently was contacted by our local cable company to tell them more about the
computer.  They had just received a prototype modified Amiga for scrolling info
on the TV guide channel.  They wanted to know 'what else can we do' with it. 
All they were using it for was text display. I demonstrated how they could jazz
up their ad's with flashy graphics and sound.

These people were computer illiterates.  They had very little exposure or for
that matter, interest, in computers.  When I began showing the graphics 
possible and how it could make their ad time more valuable, they immediately 
caught interest.  A key towards introducing an illiterate to the medium is, 
like you suggested, find common ground and show how the computer can be a 
useful tool.

		Lawrence H. Brown