How Innovative is Technology?

Often we hear about the infinite potential of IT to enable communication among members of a community, or the revolutionary impact access to market information will have in the lives of people or the leap-frogging effect virtual collaboration spaces, knowledge repositories and learning tools will have on the people. But seldom is the question asked of why there is a minimal current impact of existing communication means, information services, collaboration spaces, knowledge centers and educational institutions.

Anywhere we look, we could make the case that there is communication among people, institutions and sectors; that market information is not secret or kept hidden, often available to those who request it or seek it and that community centers, libraries, schools and encyclopedias are not actively used, even though they could address the issues presented as critical.

This unnoticed oversight can spell doom for social impact from technology, for the same lack of motivation (tradition, attitude, distrust, etc.) that keeps people from taking advantage of the potential of existing resources is most likely to continue towards the new tools or even worsen.

There is an "old" saying in the technology world: "bring automation tools to inefficient process and all you do is automate inefficiency".