There was something which Vic Gundotora said at the first Google I/O in 2008 really struck me. He talking how Google wanted to move the internet forward and why they were doing it. The “why they were doing it” was blunt and quite startling, I’ll paraphrase: the more people there are having a good experience on the internet, the more people there will be who would have a need to search, and thus the more revenue will hopefully come to Google through people using search and services. It was breathtakingly simple and very impactful when I heard it, and it still is. 

The section I’m talking about starts at about 08:34 and the real punchline is around 10:37 and the slide is below.

This concept isn’t just for the big people like Google. It is a concept that has an impact on individual developers and totally has an impact on digital inclusion. If more people are brought online, who are currently not online, there will statistically be more people using websites and it will be better for us developers: more work, more clients, more big shiny boxes sitting in the cloud serving sites and hopefully more happy people on the other end of the TCP/IP connection looking at what we made. There’s one snag though, and it’s a big one. Digital inclusion is not simply about pipes. It’s not even about computer ownership or access although that’s a big part. I think it’s about joy and delight and wonder, and at this point all I can really do is refer people to Matt Jones and Dopplr and the rubber ducky slide. 

For me it’s quite simple. If you make it enjoyable for people to be online, then any difficulties they had getting online the first time, either through fear, through nervousness about computers or security, or what a mouse is will melt away. They’ll want more wonder and will see some immediate emotional benefits. They’ll learn about being online on the real web rather than on training games. All too often in inclusion people have aimed for the statistical jugular about signing up for specific things and jumping through hoops. This stuff needs measuring, but I worry that unless people find the things online that matter to them and enjoy them, then we’ll lose quite a lot of the people who we’ve got online quite quickly after that initial burst. 

Martha Lane-Fox and I talked about some of this a while ago, it’s always inspiring to hear her tell stories about the people who have found things which change their lives. It was also really great to hear her talk at Activate this year, and in particular two things stuck in my mind. The first was her talking someone who she was helping to get online on the phone. She found out the person was interested in Craftwork, helped them find things and talked about the delight of hearing the responses from the person when they started finding things that they were interested in. It feels so right making the first places people go the places that matter to them. 

The second thing she said, is that we as an industry need to think about website design, IA, development, and in particular making things which are aimed at making the experience good not just for ourselves, but for those for whom this won’t feel so natural. (I hope the video of her talk goes live soon, as she says this brilliantly, but for now there’s an interview with Aleks Krotoski about some of this as part of the Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast). 

I’m not suggesting for a moment, and neither I think is Martha, that we need to dumb down web experiences, we just need to make them more beautiful, more intuitive, more mindful of the audiences. More inclusive you might say. They’ll then be far better first places for people to be when they’re online, they’ll get to the things that matter to them personally quicker and they’ll have a greater emotional connection to the web as a whole. 

Here’s my suggestion for something that would be a good first place. The quite wonderful, beautiful and simple Owls Near You. 

Simple, fun, elegant… 

Delivering the wonder of Owls that are indeed near you, and some key modern concepts of the web such as customised information on maps in a very short interaction time.

So what can we all do practically in the short term. Well there’s an opportunity coming up very soon. On August 7th 2010, at Google’s UK HQ, Rewired State is running a hackday in conjunction with UK Online. The details are here and people should get signing up. It’s big, it’s important societally, it’s a good thing to do and it’ll make our industry stronger.