Needs Versus Technology

     Tech for tech’s sake
      does not a market make.

The world can have as many waves of new technologies as serendipty, venture capital, or the right combination of both can muster. But the technologies that are accepted by, and make a difference in, society are those that satisfy needs. Not the technies’ needs, but the needs of the average (fair to middling) educated persons’.

Moreover, indigenous culture can play a major role in which new technologies actually get used. Several articles that read today reminded us of all this:

The ROAR consortium (The Guardian and Observer, Emap Advertising, Channel 4, and OMD UK) last month released some research on over a thousand 15-29 year-old Britons. Although this research primarily was about whether or not young Britons will purchase 3rd Generatoin mobile phones (the research’s answer: not initially), there were a few other interesting conclusions:

    “Today’s generation is demanding of technology and hard to impress. In their formative years, radical steps forward