I always find it insightful to listen to discussions from people of different generations on how they use or think about technologies. It helps those of us involved in investigating incidents involving the Internet to think in terms of a user’s experience as opposed to our own experience.

Enter the IA Podcast. I find Jeff Park’s work around usability and information architecture interesting anyway, but I find this particular series of posts/podcasts to be very useful for those of us involved in looking at how people might use the Internet and other networking technologies to connect, conduct business or entertain themselves; and how those activities might be used in the cause, prevention or investigation of crime/civil incidents.

During the first part of Park’s series called “Generations and Technology” he interviews a Grade 6 class about the technologies they use and how they think about them. The interview is informal, entertaining and very insightful, especially if you don’t have younger kids around that would expose you to this kind of human-technology interaction. For example: “instant Messenger is boring…” was one of my favourite quotes.

I’m looking forward to the next session in the series where he interviews high school students.

This brings me to another noteworthy item from this week. Toronto Constable Scott Mills has earned a reputation for his use of Web 2.0 technologies such as YouTube and Facebook to reach out to Toronto’s communities, especially youth and speaking to them through the technology mediums they regularly use.

Not only is his work recognized here in Canada, but his speech on the subject was recognized as a highlight at an Interpol conference in Johannesburg in November 2008.