Ionrock Dot Org

I was looking at this post from Dare Obasanjo and what struck me as interesting was a sentence that read:

These are all issues the Windows Live QnA folks are aware of and are looking at innovative ways to tackle.

The QnA refers to a system where people can try to find answers to specific questions. Of course if Windows Live can manage to do what others have failed to do (create a free QnA system), then more power to them. The problem is there is no way they can succeed.

The reason they are in trouble is that solving problems that involve changes in human activity are almost impossible with technology. A slick interface or innovative algorithm does little to convince people to do things they have no internal desire to do. Making a feature "findable" or more available does not mean that people will want to use it, even if it really is a helpful feature. A person can train themselves to use a service, but this is different. When you look at something like calendaring, people do use calendaring systems because it is required and has been proven to be helpful outside the digital world. Solving the QnA problem is a very hard problem that I don't believe needs to be solved.