So now there’s software that can write news articles. And software that does the design work in creating websites. And smart phones, smart cars, and smart washers. Which makes one wonder what has happened to the need for smart people. In our brave new world of 2015 and the IoT, we don’t even need to ask “who’s in the driver’s seat?” since the driver is no longer necessary.
Perhaps the IoT and smart devices of all kinds fundamentally change the old hierarchy of needs that Maslowe developed so long ago. The driving force behind our choices to act (or not) upon something don’t often have anything to do with ensuring basic survival (at least not in our privileged first world). Indeed, sometimes it seems like the highest endeavor is to ensure we’re entertained, or at least distracted.
We could despair of doing anything useful, relevant or important, because we don’t think we’re in the driver’s seat for own destinies anymore. But in fact, as content creators and producers, we do relevant useful work all the time, even if much of it seems transitory. Software maybe able to take a set of facts or recorded events and create a cogent article that’s important to Little League parents around the world for a day or so. But we’re not at the point where it can decide what’s important to the company’s marketing strategy, which patients should be considered for a drug trial, or what evidence should be used in a court case. Content not only encapsulates and delivers experience, it also plays a very big role in human judgement and decision-making. You may need a smart phone to deliver good content, but you also need smart people to create it, organize it and make it deliverable to that smart phone.
Lots of smart people were out and about describing what we do, how we do it, and how we ought to do it in the future, made available to us via that IoT. We love following what they say, and learning something new in the process. It makes us smarter… we think. Some things that smartened us up this week include:
- Can People with Disabilities Use Your Website?
- Documentation is a journey: 3 lessons learned from documenting Scribus
- StoryCorps, Podcasting and E-learning
- What lean philosophy teaches us about employee engagement and the customer value chain
Time to get in gear and drive on over to see what the rest of Tech Writer This Week has to offer.
