The government is lagging behind the rest of America in adapting to new technologies, such as the Internet, according to a panel discussion at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The panel yesterday discussed ways the government could adapt to technology its citizens are already proficient in and whether adaptation should be accelerated or remain steady.
Moderator Phil Noble, a fellow at the JFK School, announced at the beginning that the talk’s title had been changed from “The Technology Revolution: is Government Ready?” to “Generation X to Government — Get Real!”
Generation X was represented by Andrei Cherny, a 1995 Harvard graduate and former speechwriter for former Vice President Al Gore, and Meredith Bagby, a 1997 Harvard graduate and author. Speaking for the government was Sylvia Matthews, former Deputy Chief of Staff under former President Bill Clinton.
“Through technology, individuals are making the world conform to them,” Cherny said. “We have an explosion of choices. Generation X is disconnected from the government because the government is based on ideas different than these choices they’ve grown up with.
“We need a new way of thinking: government programs that allow people to choose their own options.”
Bagby agreed, citing the recent election problems in Florida as an example.
“This shows how backward we really are,” she said. “We need to make an accessible online voting system. When you have the Russians, whose economy is falling apart, telling us how to count, you’ve got problems.”
Matthews agreed the government needs to catch up to technology and said the Clinton administration had begun to integrate the Internet into government operations. However, she cautioned about moving too fast.
“We cannot exacerbate the digital divide, and competition cannot override responsibility, patriotism and community,” she said. “There are also security problems, and the talent would rather work for dot-com companies than for us.”
Cherny said he didn’t think the government was in a major crisis regarding technology and Generation X, but rather a “slow-motion crisis.”
“It’s more of a crisis of the old guard,” he said.
“It’s not a crisis, but we should act like it is,” Matthews said. “The government approached the Y2K situation like it would prove to be a major crisis, but because of our approach we managed the problem well.”
Bagby believes the government could use technology to lure Generation X back into participation, but the idea of voting has lost its charm to voters of that demographic.
“Generation X would be much more likely to vote if voting was done online,” she said. “However, the importance of voting needs to be focused on at a young age. Right now, Gen-Xers are volunteering much more than they vote. Volunteering makes you feel like you’ve done something; voting doesn’t make you feel like you’ve done anything.”
“Technology supports the re-flowering of democracy,” Cherny said. “People have to force the government to change now, though. People aren’t going to demand change all of a sudden after settling down and having kids. We need to convince this generation to change their government.”
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