WebJunction

The following is from the NY Times, February 5, 2004, 'Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off,' By AMY HARMON

"When Scott Granneman, a technology instructor, heard that one of his former students had clicked on a strange e-mail attachment and infected her computer with the MyDoom Internet virus last week, empathy did not figure

anywhere in his immediate response.

"You actually got infected by the virus?" he wrote in an e-mail message to the former student, Robin Woltman, a university grant administrator. "You, Robin? For shame!"

As MyDoom, the fastest-spreading virus ever, continues to clog e-mail in-boxes and disrupt business, the computer-savvy are becoming openly hostile toward the not-so-savvy who unwittingly play into the hands of virus writers.

The tension over the MyDoom virus underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobes who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly.

The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus's destructive power would never be unleashed.

"It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to become infected," wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group's discussion forum. "How to

beat this into these people's heads?"

Many of the million or so people who have so far infected their computers with MyDoom say it is not their fault. The virus often comes in a message that appears to be from someone they know, with an innocuous subject line

like "test" or "error." It is human nature, they say, to open the mail and attachments.

But computer sophisticates say it reflects a willful ignorance of basic computer skills that goes well beyond virus etiquette. At a time when more than two-thirds of American adults use the Internet, they say, such

carelessness is no longer excusable, particularly when it messes things up for everyone else.

For years, many self-described computer geeks seemed eager to usher outsiders onto their electronic frontier. Everyone, it seemed, had a friend or family member in the geek elite who could be summoned ? often frequently

? in times of computer crisis.

But as those same friends and family members are called upon again and again to save the computer incompetents from themselves, the geeks' patience is growing thin. As it does, a new kind of digital divide is opening up between populations of computer users who must coexist in the same digital world.

"Viruses are just the tip of the iceberg," said Bill Melcher, who runs his own technical support business in San Francisco. "When it comes to computers, a lot of intelligent people and fast learners just decide that

they don't know."

Many of the computationally confused say they suffer from genuine intimidation and even panic over how to handle the mysterious machines they have come to rely on for so much of daily life. Virus writers, spammers and scammers, they say, are the ones who should be held accountable for the

chaos they cause.

But as the same people equip themselves with fancy computers and take advantage of the Internet for things like shopping and banking, critics say that their perpetual state of confusion has begun to get tiresome. And while the Internet's traditional villains remain elusive, those inadvertently helping them tend to be friends and neighbors.

Some in the technocamp imagine requiring a license to operate a computer, just like the one required to drive a car. Others are calling for a punishment that fits a careless crime. People who click on virus attachments, for instance, could be cut off by their Internet service providers until they proved that their machines had been disinfected. And some, tired of being treated like free help lines, are beginning to rebel. They are telling friends, relatives and random acquaintances to figure it out on their own.

"Go out, get a book," suggests Zack Rubenstein, 28, who has for years provided free technical support for his extended social network. "You went to college and you got a degree, you obviously can learn something. Play

around with it; it's not going to kill you."

To the webjunction community: how do you feel about this!?

Well how many of us favor a "license" to use the Internet in the libraries. In order to use the computer a patron/staff member must pass a technology test.

Don't know if we could ever make the license happen, but what a great idea! Of course, the more I think about it, the more problems I can image, but for a few moments, it was a wonderful thought.

Maybe it's just because this is still new, and eventually users will evolve to a standard level of knowledge - there must have been people who couldn't use a telephone back in the early days? (There are still many of us who probably should not be allowed to touch the remote!)

Pam

You know the definition of technology - anything invented after you were born. That means for all the retirees coming to the library, computers are a very new concept. Probably for anyone over 40, which is a large part of our patrons trying to do all the neat things they hear their kids talk about! So if we can make small strides by teaching a few people at a time, either one on one or in classes we offer, gradually we'll have more and more who are able to manage on their own.

I think that is another issue here - they are called "Personal Computers" for a reason, and really weren't developed for the use they are getting in the library setting. People who can do very well on their computer at home come into the library and are baffled by the setup that looks so different from what they are used to. Once we show them how to get what they want, they do pretty well, and maybe the next time they sit down to a new setup they won't be quite so lost - they may even be able to figure out a few things on their own. Just more of the education role we find ourselves in.

Even larger than the various email options is the basic Mac/PC division! I cringe whenever someone asks for help with one of our two Macs because I have so little experience with them. That's when I really do wish we had some teens available since they use them in school.

A lot of times those kids we think know so much really don't - it's just they don't hesitate to look around, click on every option to see what happens, etc. So we might consider being a little more daring too!

I doubt that licenses will work, partly because there is no real standard and partly because it seems to go against the basic philosophy of libraries concerning not restricting access; however, I do like the idea of making them go through a basic computer class to use the machines. We offer them several times a month.

The sad thing is, that PC's have been so successfully mass marketed, that many people have bought them who probably should not even touch them. As far as Windows, Linux, Mac/OS and such have come, they still require a certain amount of "geeky" knowledge to use them effectively and safely. Many people, especially those in my age group and above, have no real concept of ram, hard disks, software versions, virus protection, etc. I suppose, I am one of the fortunate ones as next month, I will have been working in the computer field for 30 years. Heck, I still remember punch cards and machines we physically had to wire!

I think that the best we can do is to try to educate people. Encourage them to come to classes, recommend books that are truly at a beginner level, and continue to help them when they hit roadblocks using the public computers.

As an aside, one of the best ways I have found to protect myself from the recent crop of viruses and such is simple. I refues to use Outlook.

Wendell, what do you use instead?