ITJuju.com

Over at The Register there’s an article entitled:

Twitter would have stopped Rwandan genocide, claims PM (article here).

It’s based on quotes taken from The Guardian, (origional article here), where PM Brown links the use of Twitter in relation to the Iranian election and the Rwandan genocide.

Claiming that if the “new technology” a.k.a. Twitter was available back then or if the Rwandan genocide happened today then it would have been stopped by peoples use of twitter – all because of the so-called magic “flow of information”.

Chris Williams (The Register article auther) – brings up a very important point at the end of his article, which I’ve quoted below:

We’d like to see him try Twittering that to people in Sudan, or Northern Sri Lanka, or Somalia.

The PM’s comment just shows his superficial understanding of technology. All this so-called new technology is just old technology used in new and creative ways. There’s nothing new about the underlying infrastructure, whats changed is the speed and the amount of resources available for use.

He also assumes that enough people would have access to say computers or devices capable of connecting to other computers, then theres the assumption of them being able to access a network which connects to the Internet.

If the country’s Internet connections or cables which connect the country’s local part of the Internet to the rest of the wider Internet is severed or unavailable – then the flow of information is stopped there and then from being able to flow magically to wherever it will be received.

Let’s say they had access to a computer which worked and could access an ISP, and that ISP had access to the local Internet or the Internet within the country. And that local Internet had connections to one or more POPs (which stands for Points Of Presence) or Internet Exchanges – which are locations around the world where networks come together.

Think of them as being like crossroads, there are about 300 of these crossroads around the world – with about 20 to 30 major ones where the vast majority of Internet traffic crosses from one network to another.

Also let’s assume there are no filters between that countrys local internet and the wider internet.

Then they may have a chance of getting the word out, of getting that magical flow of information going.

But wait a minute, you have another assumption – that people will listen and then act on the information.

The underlying assumption here is the belief that: just because you have access to this new fangled technology that everyone else will also have access to it.

A very good example is webmasters who create websites assuming that everyone has access to high-speed Internet connections. Or that peoples high-speed Internet connections will be just as fast as the local network connection to their servers.

This then leads to bloated webpages which load as if they were being pushed through a dial-up connection.

Then you have the assumption that everyone keeps the software on their computers up-to-date. A Good example of this is in the use of Flash, where content is created using the latest features available – disregarding the fact that not everyone will be able to use or view that content.

Then you have the whole area of accessibility, if someone with a disability is unable to use your website. Then your assumption that everyone can – puts you into legal hot water, especially here in the UK as well as in the US.

When it comes to IT, assumptions are very bad – especially if they are bad assumptions.

I know of a marketer who uses a machine which is five years old – to test out all his webpages and site. If it works on that machine then he knows it’s more than likely going to work on the machine of whoever happens to access any of his sites or webpages as well as them being able to view the content.

He assumes that not everyone will have high-speed Internet connections, not everyone will keep the software on their computers up-to-date, that not everyone will be able to use or view the latest and greatest features available in a piece of software – think Flash.

Also, the post I did entitled Why is the software today, so slow. also highlights this point, of bad assumptions being made and used which costs you money directly.

Bad assumptions, be it on your part or someone else’s part – will either cost you money or lose you money.

Let’s take the example of websites built around the assumption that everyone has high-speed Internet connections.

That assumption leads to bloated websites, content of larger sizes, more individual pieces of content which are all of larger size. The result is that you use more bandwidth, your site’s then take longer to load on viewers machines – even if they have high-speed Internet connections. And then you have the issue of them being able to view the content in the first place.

If your trying to make a good first impression, then you’ve failed – all because of one bad assumption.

You’ve also got another problem waiting in the wings, to spring on you at a bad time – bandwidth.

It may be part of your include monthly allowance now, but what happens when you use too much or when you exceed your allowance. Even with unlimited bandwidth there is still going to be a limit to how much you can use – either the physical limit or the imposed limit by the transit provider.

What happens if your hosting account is shut down or your kicked off of the server your renting, because of excessive bandwidth usage.

If you don’t assume everyone has high-speed Internet connections then you’re going to be less likely to suffer what I’ve just described – you’ll run less of a risk of excessive bandwidth usage.

Because you’re more likely to keep everything on your site(s) lean and mean.