Advocacy: A discouraging conversation

[Alan Dayley]

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I always thought I understood that average people were somewhat ignorant
about the Internet, what it is, etc.  Then I was shocked into the
reality this Sunday.

I was showing the funny GetFirefox commercials to my visiting extended
family when the following conversation between my sister-in-law, my
mother-in-law (both reasonably intelligent) and myself occurred:

Mother: What is Firefox? Is that an Internet service?
Sister (before I could answer): Firefox is like AOL or MSN.COM, right?
Mother: Oh, so you go on the Internet and visit there. We have cable
Internet at home. Can we get Firefox there?
Me: Firefox is a web browser not a service. Like Internet Explorer is a
browser.
Sister: So it IS like AOL.
Mother: But can I get it through cable?

I was dumbfounded that two normal people had no concept what a browser
was.  I didn't feel like starting an Internet 101 class at that moment,
nor did we have the time, so I dropped it.

How can Firefox, for example, sell itself to people who think it is an
ISP? We FS/OSS advocates have a lot education to do before people even
understand what the choice IS, let alone that they have one!

Alan

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