ICT Potential to Release Capacity
humanITy paper
Date: 03/11/2005
Article
- One of the major findings of the Independent Briefing to the DTI (http://www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep12086.pdf) is that the EU has not integrated ICT into its fabric but has, rather, bolted it on.
- One of the consequences of this attitude of mind - or perhaps its explanation - is that ICT is still largely seen in official circles as limited almost entirely to such basic literacy requirements as word processing and spread sheet operations.
- It is questionable whether the strategy of teaching people basic skills focused on traditional literacy will be of any use; we may well be training people to consign them permanently to unemployment. Very few people who acquire traditional literacy and numeracy skills in the context of lifelong learning, other than educated people who acquire English as a second language - will be able to secure full-time jobs based on their skills; indeed, many traditional skills in the clerical and secretarial fields have either been swallowed up by data processing or absorbed (e.g. middle managers keying their own documents and answering their own phones).
- The key to future policy lies in understanding the basic skills required to make effective use of ICT and this, in turn, requires some understanding of the nature of computing:-
- The fundamental property of data processing is pattern recognition (shown powerfully in google) which eliminates many clerical jobs but also moves basic desk research 'down' from the graduate level. This kind of searching, as opposed to clerical pattern recognition, relies upon near matches which the aggregator then has to interpret and evaluate.
- Stemming from this basic property is the ability too network, to combine the narrow basic skills of different people to produce a result; this is the virtual equivalent of Adam Smith's division of labour (which, incidentally, is being challenged through middle management practice noted above)
- By implication, most of this processing is understood as being consumerist; people are finding and processing information from other people but there is also a great deal of room for content creation.
- A further development of importance is the integration of data in real time for such purposes as booking flights but also monitoring a fleet of moving vehicles.
- Networks allow for geographical distribution and wireless allows for cable-free, flexible working in small, if necessary itinerant, groups.
- A final problem is the mental picture of ICT as a Wintel bundle. The potential for the use of: advanced mobile phone technology, voice in/voice out, touch screens, SMS, cameras etc are all vastly under estimated. Equally, the number of recognised applications is very narrow.
- Many disabled people and people receiving Incapacity Benefit are trapped not only in the narrow context in which computing is understood but are also left on the sidelines because they are defined by what they cannot do, e.g. a former lorry driver with lower back pain can no longer drive a lorry; but it does not mean that he cannot monitor a fleet of lorries and work out how they can be most efficiently used.
- This traditional approach - of assessing people according to what they cannot do - is so ingrained in employers that public funding will be needed to erode it.
- What is required is an analysis of the history and gifts of an individual which can then be matched to a set of tasks; where the two lists most strongly fuse, there may be an opportunity but it is likely to be in the context of networked working. Very few people actually work in isolation but most job applications and interviews are designed as if most of us do work as hermits. The skills on offer may not be very great but technologies ought to allow the win/win situation where Government investment per capita falls and the income of the individual rises. This will not mean zero Government support nor the restoration of the income formerly enjoyed by benefits claimants on incapacity benefit.
- What is immediately required is a practical demonstration by industry of the state of current (not blue skies, but current) computing applications. In my experience officials rarely see real computers doing interesting things so they work in an abstract world.
- Finally, comments on two points in the Indepen Report:
- I think that the notion that the digital divide will be self correcting is doubtful but even if it is true in general it will not be true for a hard core of the population who either can not or will not use standard Wintel-type kit.
- This is implicitly admitted in the recommendation that Government efforts should be concentrated on higher quality (rather than quantity) e-Government services and that Government initiatives should concentrate on disabled people.