Both before and after I retired I've pushed the idea of farmers getting service through Internet applications. But there are some practicalities I often miss, like the learning curve barrier. In a different context, it shows up in the following--via
Kevin Drum, from a Metafilter thread on the role of public libraries: a
long comment--two excerpts:
If you can take yourself out of your first world techie social media
smart-shoes for a second then imagine this: you're 53 years old, you've
been in prison from 20 to 26, you didn't finish high school, and you
have a grandson who you're now supporting because your daughter is in
jail. You're lucky, you have a job at the local Wendy's. You have to
fill out a renewal form for government assistance which has just been
moved online as a cost saving measure (this isn't hypothetical, more and
more municipalities are doing this now). You have a very limited idea
of how to use a computer, you don't have Internet access, and your
survival (and the survival of your grandson) is contingent upon this
form being filled out correctly.
....[So you go to the library to use their computers, but you don't have the experience with them and can't find the site.}
Before leaving you decide to try one last thing. You go up to the desk,
and explain your situation. The tired, overworked person at the desk
nods along, and says, “well, we're not supposed to do this, but...” and
tells you to walk around the desk. With a few clicks on the mouse they
have the site up that you spent 30 minutes trying to find. They bring
up the electronic form, politely turn their head aside as you fill in
your social security number, and then ask you a series of questions to
satisfy the demands of the form. It comes to your email address, and
you have to admit that you don't have one, so the librarian walks you
through setting up a free one and gives it to you on a slip of paper.
“We have free computer classes,” he says (and you're lucky, because a
great deal of public libraries don't), but you look at the times and
realize that between your job and taking care of your grandson you'd
never be able to attend, and it'd probably be too hard anyway. You
thank him, and he smiles, and you leave. Congratulations, you've staved
off disaster until the next time you need to use a computer for a
life-essential task.
The whole comment and thread is interesting. Unfortunately most farmers don't have access to the sort of public libraries assumed in the thread (which sounds like my local Reston library).
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