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| The Digital Divide and The Complexities of the Digital Era, http://spotlight-universityofbedfordshire.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-digital-divide-and-complexities-of.html |
A few weeks ago I read a blog post
by James Tanner (Genealogy’s Star) titled Can we overcome the
Great Genealogical Divide? which really resonated with
me. This was probably because I had just
hung up the phone after talking with a client who does not have e-mail or a
computer (barely has cell phone service as he lives so remotely) to suggest
that he take the DVD I just sent him with over 600 images of family documents
to a Kinkos or similar to get print copies made. A really nice client, who by
choice, lives a low-key lifestyle in the wilds of Maryland
Then I got to
reminiscing about other recent clients I have worked with recently which include:
1. clients who have
no computer and even no e-mail account – so we talk via phone and/or
communicate using snail mail
2. clients who have
an e-mail account and no computer -- they access e-mail via phone or at a
library periodically
3. clients who have
e-mail and a computer but no internet access – so we talk via phone and/or
communicate using snail mail
4. clients who may
have e-mail, a computer and internet access and for whom health issues
increasingly prevent them from using such for any length of time
5. clients who
never learned to type and so only use the phone or written correspondence to
communicate
And the list goes
on of those who do not get their genealogy “fix” online nor by using online
resources, at home, as a tool.
These are not
always the oldest in our community. Many are those who have chosen to have the
technological umbilical cord that many of us are now attached to
or many who live in areas with limited access to the internet, etc.
Are we increasingly
excluding them from becoming involved in family history research? Are we (the genealogy community) doing them a
disservice by assuming that they are technologically literate? We frequently
talk about all the podcasts, webinars, programming, databases and more
available online. What if there is no “online”
for someone?
I was fortunate to
learn typing in high school (on an old-fashioned typewriter) and then shared
that skill with my husband. He, the
computer engineer, is always current on computer technology and has kept me
abreast of that world (why else did we build a house over 20 years ago with cat
5 cable running through it that we installed?).
Never mind that my dad (see picture below) in the 1960s and until he retired, worked with some of the newest generation of computers (the type that take up whole rooms) and so for my whole life I’ve been surrounded by technology-minded men!
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| Warnaco News, January 1973 -- my Dad, Richard Acey |
Because of this, I
do take for granted that I know how to type and with speed and have worked with
computers for over 30 years and with the internet since its creation. And, it’s easy for me to forget that my
situation is not that of others ...
What can our genealogical community do to embrace “everyone” interested
in researching their family history?
Have you or a local society taken steps to assist in helping the
technology-free or technology-illiterate become more comfortable with
computers, genealogy software and/or the internet? What have you done? What would you suggest to others interested
in attempting the same?
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