How my 5-year-old sees web content

I had the funniest inquiry from my five-year-old son today. He said, “Mom, how does the computer know there are new Lego sets?”

Now, I didn’t launch into a description of Document Engineering: Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services even though Bob Glushko’s book is on our bookshelf. I had to stop and think before answering, and I realized his view of the web is quite retail- and consumer-oriented. He uses a computer for web browsing (using the Glubble Firefox Plugin), playing games, and that’s about it. He’s still piecing together how the pictures, videos, and text about Legos gets onto his computer, and he’s building his own ideas about how it all works. Fascinating!

My answer was a simple “Lego is a company, and when they make a new set, they put the information on the web site, and then you go look at it.” I don’t think there’s much more to it, from a five-year-old’s view point.

The Lego site has such great marketing – they know their audience members are the kids, but they still know the targets are the parents with the purchasing power. Their designers have a great set of videos that describe the toys and sets to kids. Check them out.

Maybe I’m looking too far ahead at career choices for my kid, but I’d be proud to raise either a Lego Designer or a Document Engineer.