I’ve heard a few people speaking dismissively of Qwiki, the ‘information experience’ engine. If you don’t know what Qwiki does, it does this:
The all-too-familiar concern seems to be that watching Qwikis will make us all lazy. Although I’ve only played with Qwiki for twenty minutes, my (rushed) conclusion is that I disagree with those people. Here are two good things about Qwiki:
1. Satisfying partial interest
Our interest in things is not binary. I.e. We are not either interested or not interested; sometimes we are partially interested. The thing about being partially interested at a time of information overload is that we usually don’t ‘waste’ our energy exploring those things. Instead we spend our precious minutes on the things we’re very interested in.
In the same way that ‘free’ music opens us up to sounds we would otherwise never have bothered with, I think Qwiki will do the same thing with knowledge, by lowering the barrier to entry. There are things and places that I would like to know more about, but that I would never dig through long articles to learn about. Qwiki enables us to ‘window-shop’ for new information without committing too much effort. If that window-shopping turns up something interesting, I think we will find the energy to explore it more fully elsewhere.
2. Ambient knowledge
An interesting side effect of my first few Qwiki experiences was that my wife – who was getting ready to leave the house – heard and appreciated details of the Qwikis I was watching. It was about Edinburgh (where she went to University) and she found out that a band she likes also originates from there. She never would have discovered that if I was reading an article, because I wouldn’t have thought to tell her. Things get interesting when the edges blur.
Laziness is definitely a relevant part of this conversation, although I think it’s a subjective label. I’m quite a ‘lazy’ reader, in that if the thing I’m reading is not stimulating, I quickly tire and become less likely to continue. In technical terms: my reward diminishes and the effort required goes up, making the whole bargain seem not worthwhile.
If what I’m reading is highly stimulating/rewarding, then my motivation increases and I become more energised to read on. The beauty of Qwiki is that because the effort to consumer is so low, the reward is almost guaranteed to exceed the energy required to obtain it. The result is increased motivation and interest and a much higher chance of feeling compelled to research more.
Qwiki becomes ‘first base’ in knowledge’s seduction process. It won’t make us lazy. If anything, it will convert our existing laziness into something more useful. Or will it? ;)
