Mozilla Firefox gets choice right. On the surface it doesn’t feel like it gives you too many options. It’s clean; it’s simple. The addons are mentioned when you install, but they are not pushed into your face, so the average user can easily ignore them. And still the power user can easily customise it to their hearts content.

My degree is another great example of getting choice right. If I decide I want a named degree I have to elect to take certain units. That keeps me focused, but I also know I have the option of getting a general unnamed degree and I can study what I want. Within each unit, there is a set of things I must study. That keeps me focused, but afterwards I can read around the subject wherever my fancy takes me. It’s flexible in that way, but not so flexible that I find myself off course.

Kathy Sierra writes this about choice:

In the 80’s, the big thing in education was Learner Control. With hypertext tools came CBT programs and learners were finally put in charge of their own paths through material. The learner was empowered! Just one problem: most people pretty much suck at making sound learning decisions, especially when they don’t already know the material. So, the era of more-is-better-for-learner-control was over.

Then in the 90’s — Whoo-Hoo! Interactive Movies! Interactive Television shows! Interactive Fiction! Outside of rare novelties and a few good story-driven games, most of us would rather leave our storytelling to Steven King or Steven Spielberg, thank-you. A huge part of the point of movies and novels is to be swept into another world–a world we do not have any responsibility for.

People love abundent choice, but they don’t like to see too many options at once. If my parents watch a movie they want a small choice to look through because they haven’t heard of most of the films. I, on the other hand, want unlimited choice.

The reason my degree course works so well is the same reason Firefox works well. The default behaviour is to be led by the hand and told exactly what to do. But if that gets frustrating, I can make the decision to go off and explore on my own. How does my course do this? By providing the content in the form of a book. A chapter in a book is typically read from start to finish — from introduction to conclusion. So if I find something particularly interesting, rather than hitting a hyperlink to it I make a note (mental or written) and then continue with the chapter. This way I get things done in a very focused way but I also have that freedom I desire.

Kathy Sierra refers to the middle ground as the canyon of pain. Once you have reached the limitations of a product it becomes frustrating to continue using it, but it also hurts to take on the more advanced product because of the learning curve. Thankfully software can be built so that it is flexible enough to grow with the user.

It can also be flexible according to context. So, for example, we can take time out to set a goal and then it locks us out of changing that goal until a certain time or outcome has been reached.

So right now the British government is toying with the idea of putting tracking devices in all our cars so that they can charge us for the mile. The idea is that it will cut congestion and help the environment. It’s a bad idea in so many obvious and not so obvious ways, but that isn’t the point I want to make. Instead I’m interested in the response.

In November of last year, the government put into place a petition feature on their website. As of writing, the petition on the current issue has achieved 1,241,800 signatures.

According to the Daily Mail:

The protest means that 1 in 30 of the UK’s 30 million drivers have taken the trouble to register their protest on the web - an unprecedented feat in British political history.

The thing that got me to sign it was an email from a friend. It had a link in it, and so it was easy to sign. I’d been hearing about the petition on radio, but even though I care about this I didn’t head to my computer, search for the site and sign. The Internet helps people to engage.

It also raises fear on accuracy (among politicians!). This from the same Daily Mail article.

Transport minister Stephen Ladyman also denied claims that the electronic boxes which would be placed in cars would allow the Government to ’spy’ on motorists.

He said: “Once this petition has closed, what we are going to do is explain the real policies to the people.

“The viral emails sent round in support of this petition have got crazier and crazier. The information they have been sent is a mile away from what we are actually trying to do.”

What politicians don’t yet understand is that political marketing has changed in the Internet era. Who do you trust more: the government who are closed mouthed or your friend who sent you a viral email and may well be completely ignorant? In my case it was neither. I’d already made my mind up based on a wealth of political and real-world knowledge as well as the media. But I’m still open to having my mind changed. If the government wish to do that they can do too things. 1. Become trustworthy by proving that they can do a good job! hahaha 2. By engaging me in their debate using new-media.

But I must give kudos to the government for setting up this system.

If you are a British citizen, you can sign the petition here if you do so before 20th February 2007.

Below is an excellent video by Michael Wesch — Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University — describing in under 5 minutes the concept of web 2.0.

While this is a nice explanation and the content is worth noting, of more interest to me was the form it was presented in.

First this is a great example of how well video can explain concepts — in this case much better than I have seen in an article or book (although not with the same detail so it supports rather than takes over other formats).

The way he takes a sentence and then restructures it, is very poetic. By that I mean, he plays with the sentences and does so in a way that makes meaning more understandable.

Once you’ve watched the YouTube video, take a look at the Mojiti version where viewers can put comments into the video. To make this really useful it needs to be more flexible, but that is happening. Think of the potential for commenting on documentaries.