Technical Vs Non-technical writings - Part II

This post is a follow-up of the last one on the same subject.

Now, let us come back and think about the whys of it. Why is technical stuff popular than non-technical stuff in the web? Let us take a specific example. While it is true that there is lots of information about say, surgical methods, it is comparatively smaller than any technology related domain. When considering this specific example, you should take into account of the fact that the surgical methods have been around for the last six centuries or more, but you can’t say the same with any of the technologies related to computers. Computers themselves, as we know today, are no more than 50 years old. What could be reason, then? I think it is basically because the awareness among technical writers about the web itself, its impact, its power and the benefits it will bring into the world and themselves, is much greater than non-techies. Non-techies are fast catching up, but due to the geographically wide-spread practice of surgical methods (in this example), this is not always possible. Technology, on the other hand is uniformly developed and available all over the world. Today, technology rules the world and it is no surprise that the techies are contributing much more greatly through and to its growth, than anybody else. Also, techies are heaviest consumers of the web. As you know, supply always follows demand. It is obvious that more and more information becomes available in the areas that are consumed more. It is a positive spiral.

Secondly, I think it is because of accessibility. For example, for a person who works day in and day out with computers, it is obviously easier to create a write up about anything and publish on the web. Thus, when I find it difficult to comprehend something that would help me achieve certain things at work, I don’t need to go over to any other place, and look for help. I just search for help using google or any other search engine, in my own computer. No worries.

Thirdly, information available over the web is just like any commodity which involves buying and selling. While you publish, you essentially are selling your ideas to millions of people world over, and when you search and obtain information, you are buying those. Of course, not all of such buying and selling involves money. Lot of it is free. However, there needs to be somebody who can control the entire process. Unfortunately, here again the techies excel – because they understand the process better. Simply because, they are the ones who created these processes, in the first place!

Though the web doesn’t restrict any group of people from accessing information from it or contributing to it, the restriction is imposed by the people themselves due to their own limitations, both physical and otherwise. The division between techies and non-techies is somewhat odd, because at least for some people, it will only help to widen the gap among the web users. However I believe, with the increasing popularity of the web, this gap will lessen and eventually become non-existent in a fewer years to come…