Bureaucracy and Technology

The Alert Retrieval Cache concept constantly reminds me that technology is almost never the problem.

People are.

I've written today that emergency SMS is required beforehand, but I've written that before. And the idea has yet to take off - which at first frustrated me but now only puzzles me.

Today, I had an eureka moment while changing the oil in the pickup.

The problem is that the bureaucracy that was created to manage society - or better, bureaucracies - are resilient. They pointedly resist change. They were made not to change. And the main problem with the sort of technology use I've been advocating is that it seemingly requires so many changes to existing bureaucracies.

Anyone can implement it - but which budget will pay for it? Who will 'own' it such that they get the budget and manage it?

And that's why it's so hard to get some useful technologies to be used. A single person beating a drum loudly isn't enough to change anything. A prominent media lab might be better suited - but then, why is that?

Because the bureaucracy accepts those innovators, but it disdains the others who run around the world in their problem-solving mayhem. Their bureaucracy has an imprint on the greater bureaucracy.

But, remember, bureaucracy is slow to change.

I don't know if it's good or bad. I don't even know that it's true. But I'm wrapping the note around a rock and throwing it into cyberspace.

There will be no ripples.