Technology adoption has so many models, which represent how the public embrace it. One of the known models (See Rogers’ bell curve) puts a classification from Innovators to Laggards. Innovators are those brave, open minded and risk takers; however, laggards usually lack a bit of this courage either to start a disruptive change or to accept it as a fact in their lives. I can’t say I’m an innovator but I’m happy to classify myself as an early adopter.
The story is us a group of five migrant families on a new land. Most of us landed from just few years, and by the new year we felt enough excitement to go on a several hours road trip to experience a new place.
Our planning started with the familiar online research and note taking for the possible destinations and the promising excursions. The more we planned, the more we felt the need to a simpler tool to document and group the potential places we were finding. In addition, we needed to be able to geo-locate these places, their inter-distance, others’ reviews, and definitely to be able to record notes summarising the most important knowledge that mattered most to us. Finally, we realised that this tool already existed within Google Maps, it had a feature called Lists.
Wearing the hat for the Google Local Guide I created a list, and shared it with the rest of the group such that whatever comes out from our planning meetings got reflected on this list. It kept growing till we decided to review and trim it, for only those open places, the places that sound suitable to the age for our kids, and also according to their affordability. Even the road had a record for the petrol stations and some sight-seeing on the way.
I believe that was one of the moments when I felt really rewarded for trying a new thing. Trying and experimenting can be as simple as a feature in one of those ubiquitous apps on our smart devices and that still feels good! That was one of the most interesting things I have done as a Local Guide.
