John Creighton

December 6th, 2009 by John Creighton in Dispatches

Tags: Citizen Centric, Technology

We live in a different world than we did just a few years ago.  The Smartphone is transforming how we experience day to day life.  Mobile phone calls, emails and text messages are mere harbingers of the ways in which the Smartphone is, can and will change our lives and our society.

It is not the Smartphone itself that is changing society.  It is the fact that we are able to take internet access with us where ever we go.  It’s becoming clear that mobile internet access – and mobile access to all the internet has to offer including social networks – is going to become more ubiquitous rapidly.  Adding internet access through a Smartphone often is a more affordable option than paying for a home based internet connection and computer.

I wrote in a previous post that Culture Follows Structure.  The idea is that new technologies have the potential to change people’s behaviors.  Behavioral changes, in turn, change people’s – and eventually society’s – attitudes, opinions, norms and values.

I began to understand the transformative nature of mobile internet access on a family vacation driving the coast of California this past summer.  We used our Smartphone for all the purposes you can imagine including simple phone functions, yellow pages and GPS navigation.  But the Smartphone changed our vacation when we used it as a personal learning assistant.

We read articles about seals while looking at the real thing near Big Sur.  We watched helicopter scoop water out of the ocean to fight a nearby forest fire and read about historic California fires.  We read about actors such as Charlie Chaplin while wondering the grounds of the Hearst Castle (Chaplin was a frequent guest to the Castle).  And, we studied up on the Bird Man of Alcatraz while riding the ferry to Alcatraz Island for a tour of the prison grounds.

It was sitting in the empty Alcatraz dining hall listening to a park ranger give a talk on Robert Stroud (the Birdman) when I realized that public leaders need to pay far more attention to the transformative powers of the Smartphone.  The park ranger’s talk was almost identical to the Wikipedia article we read ourselves while riding on the ferry.  Even his answers to questions could be easily found on the pages of Wikipedia.  The park ranger added no value to our experience.

Our experience with the park ranger is an example of what’s to come – of what’s already here.  People’s expectations for and relationships to public institutions are changing fundamentally.  Here are three examples of the changes and challenges that are upon us.  I would be interested in what others add to the list.

A wider range of needs and interests.  My family needed a different experience than the park ranger had to offer.  We may have been one of the few families who used our Smartphone as a personal tour guide.  Others may have relied entirely on what the park ranger had to offer.  It will be more difficult for public institutions to meet everyone’s needs, in the short term at least, as people’s needs become more disparate.

Redefining value added.  Over time, more and more people will access information on their own.  They will pursue depth based upon personal interest not commonly available information.  Public institutions must rethink what it takes to add value to people’s experiences.  Providing general, common information will no longer be enough.

A growing gap between those with and without access.  As noted earlier, the evidence is that the number of people who have mobile internet access will continue to grow rapidly.  There will be growing pressure for public institutions to align their practices on the assumption that people do have access.  But, some people won’t adopt the new technologies as quickly as others.  Public leaders and public institutions will be forced to make choices about how much to support those who lack mobile access – whether by choice or circumstance.

These aren’t easy challenges for public leaders to manage.  This is new territory for us all.  We can’t rely on benchmarks or experience to inform our choices.  We’re all pioneers.

But, therein lays an important insight on how public leaders should proceed.  Embrace the pioneer spirit.  My hope is that I will be able to embrace this spirit and learn from those who already have.

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Picture Credits:  Mind the Gap by Flickr user rnike.

Thanks to bloggers Brad Rourke, Will Richardson and Bud Hunt for spurring my thinking on this topic.