“not that long ago, people’s most sophisticated computing experience was at work, and computing was limited at home. Now, in most cases, the opposite is true. The consumerization of IT is a result of the availability of excellent devices, interfaces and applications with minimal learning curves. As a result of using these well-designed devices, people have become more sophisticated users of technology, and the individual has been empowered. People expect access to similar functionality across all their roles and make fewer distinctions between work and non-work activities”.
Right on!
My “little woman” is typical of the new user of IT. She is the least sophisticated IT user I could imagine, yet she has several computers including two notebooks and a smart phone as well as a desktop. Her desktop has her own ftp server and she can access her files from anywhere in the house, securely. She has a FaceBook page and networks with others who a few years ago were challenged by the file-system of any PC or poking around a menu.
However, Gartner still does not seem to realize that software is information and FLOSS is a natural part of the contemplated new world order. The world can make its own software and FLOSS like GNU/Linux, LibreOffice and FireFox are just as much a part of the future as FaceBook and tablets for all the same reasons. People need to do things with IT and Wintel is in the way. The platform of the future needs to lead, follow or get out of the way. There is no room for tyrannical software empires dictating to the masses and taxing IT.
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Your “little woman” has you as her personal system administrator. Weren’t you all excited about how you made the scanner/fax/whatever work with GNU/Linux by enabling its FTP functionality? See the problem? I guess not.
The consumerization of IT is a result of the availability of excellent devices, interfaces and applications with minimal learning curves.
No, that’s definitely not a description of the cr*p which is cooked up in FLOSS land on a regular basis.
Chris Weig to the point I have had to install FTP server on Windows machines so scanning on some network printers would work too.
Its not 100 percent strange. A lot of people require a tech of some form to get a PC working.
Its not 100 percent strange. A lot of people require a tech of some form to get a PC working.
These people are not the ones Mr. Pogson calls “least sophisticated”.