St. Paul Pioneer Press YourTech Section
8/30/99
I wrote this column for the revamped YourTech Section. I'm waiting for the paper to put up the column in the their publicly available archives, but for now, you can read it here.

I wasn't impressed, initially, until a couple of years later I discovered a conversation forum where the Whole Earth Review crowd hung out. They were a literate, witty bunch, and they were calling the medium CMC - computer mediated communications. And they argued endlessly whether the technology would revolutionize the world. I wrote in my journal on November 30, 1985: "These people think CMC will make organizations more horizontal than hierarchical, resulting in a new and higher quality of interactive group process and organizational decision making. They want to foster the use of the medium through all facets of global society so that through the free exchange of ideas and information will come new solutions to old problems." I was inspired, and six months later I left social work for a full-time job with a division of McGraw-Hill to create an online network for teachers and schools. I've been making a living online ever since.

Has their vision come to pass? Not quite.

• Dilbert's popularity is testimony to the oppressiveness of many big organizations, no matter that everyone from the CEO to the janitor uses email.
• Columbine High School's tragedy is testimony to the oppressiveness inherent in many of our huge, factory-style schools, no matter that even the most troubled kids know how to build web sites.
• The job hunting system is this country still sucks. The Internet is a great tool for researching organizations but posting resumes on job websites and carpetbombing HR departments with them via email is mostly ineffective for getting a job doing what you love in an environment that brings out the best in you.
• Nearly every local unit of government has a web site and nearly every government official has an email address. Yet, the kind of interaction that's happening in our Northfield Citizens Online Web Café-- government officials regularly engaging in civil discourse with one another and the public around important civic issues--is still rare. People are generally as cynical as ever about government's ability to make their lives better. The Internet has not yet helped much to reinvent government.
• By nearly all accounts, the gap between the information haves and havenots has gotten considerably wider in recent years.

The Internet has certainly contributed to society's "dizzying pace of change" that pundits often cite. Yet society's basic problems remain as entrenched as ever and respond to our best efforts to fix them at "a glacial pace" if at all, despite a booming economy and the Net's ubiquity. We seem to forget that the Net's just a tool and a medium that responds to both the best and the worst of our human nature and the larger organizational systems that influence our lives.

What makes for a personally satisfying week hasn't changed much since Adam and Eve: Ample time with friends and family. Continuous learning. Community and neighborhood involvement. Spiritual solitude and self-reflection. Physical exercise. A satisfying job. You don't need the Internet for any of that.

Tackling society's problems is much the same. Margaret Mead's oft cited quote still applies.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

The Internet can help your small group to change the world, but you don't need it. A conversation salon in your neighbor's living room or at a nearby coffeehouse will do just as nicely.

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