[Web4lib] Paperless Society

[Ms Norma Jean Hewlett]

Whenever I read propositions to eliminate hard-copy documents in favor 
of electronic ones, I think of something that happened to me a few 
years ago. The incident really gave me a feel for how easy it is to 
change online information, and how difficult it can be to convince 
people that it has been changed.

Someone posted a message to one of the email lists I read, saying they 
had created a table that compared online classroom management 
environments and it was posted at a particular url.

I went there. One of the comments about a particular program was that 
it included instructions about "pedagogy and knobology." I knew what 
pedagogy was, but knobology was a new one, so I emailed the list and 
asked if anyone could explain what it was.

Almost immediately, I got back several messages defining the term--
Knobology is an interface designer's term that means knowing what 
knobs to turn and which buttons to push. 

The next day, I went back to the web page to read the information 
there again. I noticed that the creator had changed the 
word "knoboloby" to "user interface management." That seemed a lot 
more clear. I assumed that she'd read my comments and changed it 
almost immediately--very nice work on her part!

For a long time afterwards--almost 3 weeks--I got a stream of messages 
saying, "You must have made a mistake. I read you message, went to 
this webpage, and I couldn't find the word Knobology anywhere on the 
page."

Jean Hewlett

All opinions in this message are my own, and do not represent my 
employers.