INTERVIEW:
Question 1
Do you think that the new technologies can help create a new form of democracy?
Answer
Today we have a government structure that was created in the industrial age: the
bureaucracies we have today were built at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, at
the beginning of this century. Now we're in the midst of this new digital revolution;
there are new technologies like the Internet, the WWW, the telecommunications revolution.
We need our government structures to change to keep pace with this new network society.
We're seeing many problems with governments around the world not being able to help
citizens effectively in law enforcement and public safety, social services, education. In
the United States and Europe and Asia there are a lot of problems with education and
governance. So we really need a new type of network government for the information age. An
American writer, James Pinkerton, describes bureaucracy as being like the operating system
of a computer: its hierarchical, it manages inputs and outputs, its commands are rules
driven, and we really created a bureaucratic operating system, the DOS, if you will, and
like the disk operating system of the early computers it no longer works. We need a new
operating system for government for the information age. You can't have mainframe
government in an Internet world. We need Internet government.
Question 2
Government on demand?
Answer
Yes. I think citizens are getting used to services on demand - 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. Government today needs to start using the technology to provide government on
demand. My son's best friend in the United States goes to high school on the Internet. He
gets his classes every day from a school 500 miles away: he does his lessons plans during
the day, and he sends back his homework at the end. Technology can be used to give
government services on demand to citizens.
Question 3
And what is the role of the government?
Answer
Today government is really built around geography, around structures: you have the federal
or national government, the provincial or state government, and the local government.
Structures are very important but they do not always work well together. The structure
rules everything. In the future, the function or the purpose is more important than the
structure. So we think in the future federal government, national government, has to work
more closely with local government to provide easy and better services to citizens when
they need them.
Question 4
What do you think of smart communities?
Answer
In industrial government most of the rules and polices are set at a national or central
level and it doesn't work very well; society is moving too fast. In successful countries
more of the government services are being provided at the community or local level. We
like to say that the heavy lifting in government is being down by the communities. So a
smart community is where technology can reach out to help citizens for education, for
health care, for public safety, and the heavy lifting and the work is done at the
community level, with just national policies or national support at the federal level.
Leave the details of the service or the program to the local government and just set broad
national policy at the federal or national level.
Question 5
What do you think of civic networks and virtual communities?
Answer
All kinds of new communities are being formed around the globe. In the United States today
there are many virtual immigrants, people that work in the United States during the day.
And that's done on networks; they may be in Asia, in India or Europe. We're creating all
types of new communities. And that's why the government structure we have today, the
government operating system of the industrial age, will not work, because we can't take
into account these new virtual communities. I think in the future we'll see many new,
different kinds of communities, when students - some in California, some in Rome, some in
Paris - are all in one class or virtual community; they're not based geographically. And
unless government creates policies to support this, we'll have a lot of trouble. Those
countries that don't change their policies and government structures will be left behind.
They will not be able to compete with those governments and those public sector agencies
which are moving forward. That's a big challenge for governments in Asia, in Europe, and
in North and South America.
Question 6
As in Smart Valley?
Answer
Yes. In California there's the famous Silicon Valley which is the home of many computer
companies, SUN, Apple Computers, Oracle Corporation. About twenty different local
communities, local cities and counties have got together to create a base of government
services that are delivered over the Internet. So if you want to get a building permit, if
you're starting a business and you need to get a permit from the government, if you want
to enrol your children in schools, if you want to find out what's happening at the town
council meetings, you can get this information over the Internet. You also can conduct
business one-stop-shop through your computer with many agencies in one city, so you don't
have to go and spend all day at five or six government offices to do your business.
Question 7
Do you think the next century will see a new Renaissance?
Answer
If you look back many hundreds of years, the printing press was a catalyst to unlocking
knowledge that helped foster the Renaissance. I think today there's the possibility with
the microprocessor and the telecommunications revolution for the seeds of a new
Renaissance. Technology has no democratic imperative. It's up to the individuals who have
a vision, who believe in freedom, to harness that technology for a new Renaissance. I
think it's possible, but the future is not written yet.
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