Does All the New Stuff Help Us Communicate?

The communication revolution that surrounds us seems like normal connection to some of the younger generation but is deeply confusing to many.
High speed internet, the almost universal use of mobile phones, eftpos and bank cards means one can travel anywhere at all and remain in touch with just these tools and a passport. Global roaming and global positioning mean that we can be tracked fairly easily as well, either directly or by following the electronic trail of our activities.
Most of these things that we take for granted were figments of the imagination only three decades back, yet their acceptance still leaves big areas of challenge to the way we live. Look at the dreadful congestion in our cities with governments struggling to respond to ever louder demands for more travel infrastructure at a time of dramatically rising oil costs and long term need to reduce fossil fuel usage.
Why do people still go to work everyday when modern firms link internationally by internet, cable, mobile and other technologies. Stay at home, enjoy life and work electronically. This piece was not written in the office of the Sunday Star Times but on a jet between here and Oz.
It is this strange ambivalence to technology that sees the contradiction between traffic and telecommunication unresolved. There would be no need at all for extra roading network expenditure if we dumped the need for face to face contact with what is already available on most mobile networks, especially the 3G versions. Oddly rural people adopt technology way before urban dwellers as the travel distances force them to.
Media is full of reports on the need for and provision of greater broadband speeds, yet stubbornly certain sectors seem determined not to adopt the widespread use of these enabling technologies.
I have often mentioned councils that just refuse to connect electronically with their customers, builders, ratepayers etc. One cannot electronically make appointments with any council staff in most councils, yet mayors never miss a speech-making opportunity to waffle on about the future. The health sector is bravely trying to get better connection between hospitals, patients and GPs but the sheer size of the challenge will take time. Unfortunately central bureaucracies like Ministry of Health have embraced the governments e-strategy so completely they think they have the right to send unsolicited book sized 10meg files of absolutely unreadable rubbish.
The ostrich award for head in the sand, back to the future approach has to go to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. I have just received their policy for us, the mug public. It notes " The investigation is done by letter. The Office has a policy of not using emails for correspondence about complaints because of security concerns: emails can often be seen by people who are not involved in the complaint".
You have got to be joking! Most concerns about privacy are about electronic new tech based information gathering, so the commissioner won’t go there! Do they assume that hard copy letters are invisible to people who are not involved in a complaint. Keep the emails and letters out of their hands! If they can’t keep their own emails private what are we doing paying them to set policies for modern life?
The same day I read this idiot policy, the Privacy Commissioner, Marie Shroff was waffling on at the Privacy Forum about the misuse of technology. It’s worst misuse is its non-use. Every day use of bank cards, eftpos and online purchases expose us to loss making risks greater than privacy risks so we need brainy solutions to skimmers and other clever crims, not backward snail-mail policies.
Basic email etiquette needs to be more widely taught. I receive some enormous computer clogging emails simply because some dumb firm insist on sending me their colour logos around otherwise simple messages. Regular users of hand-helds will testify to the difficulties sometimes in opening attachments, which could so easily just have been the ordinary email in the first place.
Let’s modernise and use technology to its fullest.
WAYNE BROWN