Let your users set policy

In the past, I have seen software and Web applications developed so that all kinds of interesting business rules were added. The intention was to help users out, to protect them from unwanted behaviors or imagined side effects. The problem was that these weren’t requests from the user, they were imagined needs by the software developer. The moral of the story is that, when developing software tools, you want to let the user do anything they might want to, where possible.

This maxim came rushing back while reading a technology article in the New York Times last week. The topic was how cable, satellite and television service providers want to be more, well, interactive. Seeing the success of TiVo and Apple in developing interactive TV services (despite the failure of Microsoft’s WebTV), service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers are realizing that the big-screen plasma TV on the wall in front of the couch could offer a host of features that users typically turn to their computer screens for.

This is no secret, of course, to hundreds of thousands of geeks across the country who have, no doubt, already hooked up an old PC to their TV and grabbed a wireless keyboard and mouse (or trackpad, what-have-you…) to go with that bag of microwave popcorn. They knew they wanted to Google from their sofa years ago, and they simply exposed all of the features of the PC to their living room.

So, when I read the following paragraphs, I started to shake my head:

Some people, however, wonder if one difference in the use of cellphones, which usually have a single user, and TVs, which are more often shared among family members, might create problems.

Jeffrey G. Weber, AT&T’s vice president for video products, worries that opening the TV to applications like e-mail might encourage domestic disputes.

“E-mail is a private thing,” he said. “What happens when the wife wants to read e-mail from her mother on the set when you want to watch the game?”

I’ll tell you what happens: people figure it out. Maybe they post a TV schedule on Google Calendar, maybe they play rock-paper-scissors, maybe they buy a new TV–who knows? But it’s one thing the AT&T guy shouldn’t worry his little head about.

This isn’t just about software. Whatever program you’re trying to involve an audience in, set some basic ground rules that help focus the activity and prevent catastrophe. Then, let people figure out the rest. Respect your audience, put them in the driver’s seat, and they’ll reward you for it by introducing new ideas you never thought of. You’ll become richer for it, in every way.

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