"What is the dirtiest four letter word in the English language?" I've asked hundreds of audiences this question and their answers range from the sublime to the outrageous while hundreds of blushing faces avert their eyes. Then I suffix the question with, "with regards to information ."

The audience relief is palpable as they shout out five and six letter words to everyone's amusement. And then someone finally shouts out "User." (The word I was searching for was different, but that's for a different article.)

Then, as Mark Gibbs did in his "Curse You Users" article, the audience and I collectively rant about security, poor education, awareness and user (in)competence. I am appreciative of his phrase, "digital literacy," and sympathize, but that's where he and I disagree.

Instead of exclusively blaming the user, I have come to a vastly different conclusion. We, the IT community, the high priests of the information age, are truly to blame. Because we tend to understand what goes on under the hood of intelligent device, we similarly appear to expect the mere user to be just as digitally literate. And that's just not going to happen.