For the last decade and a half we have heard a lot of talk about the need for the modern worker to become computer literate. What this means has always been a bit ambiguous—one of those loaded concepts we throw around in conversation but struggle to define when asked. What does it really mean to be computer literate? A two year old can turn on a computer and “use” is he computer literate? How about a sixty-five year old woman using her desktop to do nothing more than play solitaire computer literate? How about the sports reporter who uses his terminal to look up sports scores and game stories doesn’t know how to check the weather. Is he computer literate?

What I’m getting at is one of two things. Either we don’t know what computer literacy really means or computer literacy is not quite the end all we thought it was. There is something missing from the definition, something which makes being “computer literate” more than just pushing a button and using one or two applications on a computer.

Enter information literacy.

Defined as the ability to use a computer to find and manipulate information, the phrase helps us come to terms with the fact a computer is underemployed when its user is unable to do more than hit a switch and execute a couple applications. With the attention paid to pushing computer access and literacy surprisingly very little has been paid to improving information finding skills, the very skills that matter when economic performance and productivity is of interest. Yes, many of us can use a computer but remarkably few of us (myself included) are fully fluent at finding the information we desire when called to find it. (How often do you find what you’re googling on your first try?)

What good is having the world’s information accessible online if there is no way to categorize and process it. How much is the ability to sort through this information in a meaningful way worth? (Answer: approximately 250 billion dollars if you aggregate the market caps of the big three search engines).

How much would you pay to refine those skills? 10 dollars? 20 dollars? Five easy payments of $9.95 and if you act now we’ll make one of those payments for you?

You see where I’m going with this…

-Nii A. Ahene

Filed under: Musings, Business Ideas for YOU |
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