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What Is The Internet Doing For Elizabeth?
By Wayne Rash, InternetWeek
I set the martini glass down on the bar in the lobby of a suburban
Chicago restaurant and looked at the only other occupant of the bar.
"So what's the Internet to me?" she asked, sipping her beer. I sampled
my cold vodka. "It's a world of information," I said.
"Look," she said, "I wait tables at a steak house. I hear about the
Internet, I read about the Internet, but I don't see how the Internet
makes my job easier." She set her glass down on the bar as I lifted
mine. I didn't have an immediate answer.
"Have you thought about the fact that your company has a Web site that
brings people in from all over the world?" I asked. "Or how about the
fact that customers from New York to Los Angeles can find the same
great steaks here that they find at home?" I was beginning to grasp at
straws.
"Look," she said, "all my customers know about me is that I tell them
'Hi, my name is Elizabeth, how can I help you?' and that I bring them
fine steaks." She wondered aloud what bringing in people from the
coasts would do. I wondered, too.
We talked for a while. I told her about when I waited tables to pay for
college. I discussed my niece and her job working for Wolfgang Puck.
Then Elizabeth circled back to the Internet. I was getting distressed.
"So, how does this help me do my job?" she asked.
The fact was, I was stumped. The Internet does a lot of wonderful
things, but how, indeed, did it help a young woman who was struggling
to make ends meet waiting tables? I thought back to the time when I was
in college. I paid my way by combining the GI Bill with a wage as a
waiter. What was it that I cared about then?
I thought about the jobs that people who aren't IT managers or
journalists or government functionaries had. How was it that they did
their jobs? How could the Internet do anything for their daily lives?
It took a lot of thought, but fortunately, the bartender was good at
martinis, so I had plenty of time. Was the Internet and its wealth of
information not finding its way to mainstream Americans? And what about
people outside of the mainstream? I was thinking of people in the
underground economy, or people who were working outside the United
States. Was the Internet helping them?
Elizabeth looked over at me as I pondered. "You know," she said, "I'd
really like to find out more about other restaurants." I asked her what
she wanted to know. "I'm really interested in their menus. What is it
that they serve that we don't?" she asked. She said that she was
concerned because customers frequently asked why she didn't have some
items they liked elsewhere.
"It could be that you can find out that information," I suggested. I
pointed out that a lot of restaurants have their menus available
online, and that she could keep up with the latest trends in food
service that way. For a while we talked about the concept of Web sites
for restaurants, and how to keep menus up to date.
"I'll have another," I said to the bartender. He mixed another martini
while I thought.
Is this why we're missing the great public movement to the Internet
that we've all expected? Were we missing the things that matter to the
daily lives of most working Americans? Were we more irrelevant than we
thought?
I think we are. Most people aren't IT managers or network users or
journalists who write about networking. They're people who work in the
service or manufacturing industries. They make decent wages, live their
lives finding ways to get their kids into college and don't spend a lot
of time worrying about IP version 6 or gigabit switching or high-speed
routing. Technology to them is using the ATM machine to withdraw 50
bucks or swiping their Discover card to buy something at Wal-Mart. It
has never occurred to them to check the Wal-Mart Web site.
It's not much of a stretch to see how the Internet is intended for the
elite. We're aiming at the college students with their high-speed, free
connections. We're marketing to the government employees with their
free access using their ".gov" or ".mil" domains. But that's not what's
going to make the Internet a global marketplace.
"So what would you like the Internet to do for you?" I asked her. "Make
my job easier," she said. "Tell me what a wine tastes like so I don't
have to guess, or tell me what fish it is I'm really serving, instead
of what it means in some other language." At that point, she paid her
bill and left.
I hated to tell her, but that information was mostly available. The
tools and answers are there. So why is it that most people don't seem
to know? Are we keeping secrets?
Wayne Rash is managing editor/technology at InternetWeek. He can be
reached at wrash@mindspring.com or wrash@cmp.com.