Jon Udell of Microsoft recently referred back to a quote from Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, who stated the following in response to a question about RDF and the Semantic Web:

“Look, putting angle brackets around things is not a technology, by itself. I’d rather make progress by having computers understand what humans write, than by forcing humans to write in ways computers can understand.”

I find this statement really interesting. I’m not sure that I’ve sufficiently wrapped my mind around its implications but I think it is part of the core of what has made Google search so successful. People, especially librarians, may be critical of the so-called “Google effect” but I just can’t fault them too much frankly on that because I think this statement or philosophy is spot on. It puts the human as front and center and in control, not computers or technology.

It is really, really hard work to make technology look easy for humans, or to make it work effortlessly for them. I’ve often used the analogy of how serene a duck looks as it glides across a lake. What isn’t seen is the tremendous activity taking place below the water’s surface as the duck actively paddles its feet to propel it across the water. Google is fortunate to be in a position to throw tremendous amounts of brainpower and sheer numbers of people into projects to make technology understand what humans want or expect. As a result they can offer the simplicity and ease of use of their search platform (and other offerings).

I love the Spanish word, ojalá, that captures what I feel about this: “Oh how I wish” that we who work in libraries had the luxury of more brainpower and more manpower to crack tough technological nuts to provide better services for our users! I am not meaning that technological solutions are the only ways to provide better service; that is just what I am focusing on as I think about this statement of Brin’s. I am not sure what to do about it personally or professionally, although I am in strong support of open communities of practice rather than closed silos where data (and to some extent, technologies for utilizing that data) are kept under lock and key.