'Belting' Technology Users: White Belts to Black Belts (Mark Milliron)

SCUPers know the work of Mark Milliron well. He was a hit as a SCUP–42 plenary speaker (Remember the guy in the gorilla suit walking backwards through the basketball players?) and he will once again (This is brand new information!) address SCUPers in plenary session on Monday, July 12 in Minneapolis at SCUP–45.

Some may not know that he posts regularly on a Catalytic Conversations blog. This fairly recent post is about eliminating the "digital native" and "digital immigrant" labels from technology users and, instead, identifying users based on mastery levels as in the martial arts:

We all know technology white belts—beginners who either want to or have to begin their instruction and are taking their first steps. They’re awkward, they make mistakes regularly, and they can be quite dangerous. Black belt martial artists will quickly tell you it’s far more dangerous to spar an untested white belt than a trained fighter with control. White belts often swing wildly and are less aware of the power of their strikes. The world is full of white belt technology users. From the hasty forwarding of obvious scam emails to posting strange comments on your Facebook wall to excitedly responding to requests for bank information from Nigerian royalty, they’re not hard to spot.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA