I was thinking yesterday about how I might teach my technophobic Father how to use the Internet. I came to the realisation that web browsing at its core is very simple. Click on highlighted phrases. Click on the Back button to return to where you were. Or as the Cluetrain Manifesto puts it "Here’s the instruction manual for a web browser: if it’s blue and underlined, click on it." Maybe it’s this simplicity that is the true reason why so many hundreds of millions of people across the world have flocked to the web.

Pity we don’t have this kind of simplicity in all the devices we use. When we use a VCR, out intention is to tape a specific show. Instead, if you are like me, every time that I pick up the remote control I have to re-learn a series of arbitrary commands and button sequences. I can’t just achieve my goal of recording the latest Warriors game – technology gets in the way.

Pity too that we can’t accept the simplicity of the web, and we try to bend and twist it into forms it was never supposed to take. Is it any wonder that we struggle to figure out sites like www.cocacola.co.nz (now offline)? (Of course, you can rest easy, Microsoft has plans for Office to become the ubiquitous all purpose application platform).

Of course, my Father may never learn how to use a browser because he lacks enthusiasm, the desire to experiment. Give him a GPS unit for his fishing, however, and that’s a different story.

Trent