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Easier absolutely means something and I'm not suggesting we dump democracy. FYI - most of your government, wherever you are from, is run by bureaucratic edict,

Easier absolutely means something and I'm not suggesting we dump democracy. FYI - most of your government, wherever you are from, is run by bureaucratic edict, not by political means. The heads of government agencies often wield immense power and have no need to respond to voters interest because there's effectively too much 'on the ballot' so to speak, and too much mundane detail for voters to understand. An technical that transcends agencies though ... my god man. The government of Canada's (and probably the US as well) IT situation is a massive mess, there's no consistency across organizations, there's no concept of identity management across entities, let alone for the general public. Nothing is integrated, nothing works. You can have a doctor examine you in one place and it's very difficult to get your medical history across to a different entity. Try even finding a doctor? Who's available? Who's not? My health is at risk, I want to know where I can get a doctor? Nope. Shut up, we can't figure that out, it's too hard - go to a clinic and just see whoever is on duty - is the only answer. I would vote for a bunch of ex-Google PM's and Engineers to literally take over my nations IT (especially in Health) to simplify and scale it. Or at least to have it under the control of one entity.

toyg 8y ago
Having someone say that, for example, “from tomorrow all your health data will be in Google Docs!” is likely to generate caos and harm people. Democratic government must operate on scales measured in decades, not months, and make sure to be as inclusive as possible (remote island with satellite internet? Probably will oppose any solution with 80mb of single-page JS. Etc etc). This makes for slow progress. It’s just how it is. Add to that the continuous jockeying of vendors, and poor training of administrative elites (a very underestimated problem in many countries)... Modern society is just big and complex, no matter how hard we wish that weren’t the case.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "“from tomorrow all your health data will be in Google Docs" Who is advocating that? Nobody. I didn't even infer that. What I want is some highly talented and organized people, like those from Google, to take over IT for Healthcare in Canada, and then shift our non-existent IT solutions over to something that works. Because right now it's a non-existent bureaucratic mess. "Modern society is just big and complex, no matter how hard we wish that weren’t the case" I didn't say it wasn't. But that doesn't mean that many governments aren't supremely inefficient in many areas. Canadian Healthcare IT being a big one. CGI, a Canadian IT company spent $2B making the Obamacare sign up website - something a handful of Google Engineers had to come in and fix. They basically wrote much of it from scratch.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    > I didn't even infer that. No you didn't. Toyg did. You implied it (arguably)
- amanaplanacanal 8y ago
  But one person can say "We are now at war!" and the missiles start flying. That seems like a much more fraught decision than whether or not to stay on daylight saving time.
  - masonic 8y ago
    Pro tip: launch first, declare war later.
  - toyg 8y ago
    In many countries, that is actually a prerogative of Parliament.
ddebernardy 8y ago
> FYI - most of your government, wherever you are from, is run by bureaucratic edict, not by political means. A more correct formulation would have read: > is run by bureaucratic edit within the boundaries set by lawmakers.
johnchristopher 8y ago
> I would vote for a bunch of ex-Google PM's and Engineers to literally take over my nations IT (especially in Health) to simplify and scale it. I have seen that happening (not with Googlers, not at a national level) within my province/state and now everyone has to deal with an inefficient global IT management service that is borderline useless and has the "know-it-all" syndrome. YMMV. (My department managed to be the rebel over the years and we have our own setup but it's slowly getting taken away from us.)

toyg 8y ago

Having someone say that, for example, “from tomorrow all your health data will be in Google Docs!” is likely to generate caos and harm people. Democratic government must operate on scales measured in decades, not months, and make sure to be as inclusive as possible (remote island with satellite internet? Probably will oppose any solution with 80mb of single-page JS. Etc etc). This makes for slow progress. It’s just how it is. Add to that the continuous jockeying of vendors, and poor training of administrative elites (a very underestimated problem in many countries)... Modern society is just big and complex, no matter how hard we wish that weren’t the case.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
"“from tomorrow all your health data will be in Google Docs" Who is advocating that? Nobody. I didn't even infer that. What I want is some highly talented and organized people, like those from Google, to take over IT for Healthcare in Canada, and then shift our non-existent IT solutions over to something that works. Because right now it's a non-existent bureaucratic mess. "Modern society is just big and complex, no matter how hard we wish that weren’t the case" I didn't say it wasn't. But that doesn't mean that many governments aren't supremely inefficient in many areas. Canadian Healthcare IT being a big one. CGI, a Canadian IT company spent $2B making the Obamacare sign up website - something a handful of Google Engineers had to come in and fix. They basically wrote much of it from scratch.
- isostatic 8y ago
  > I didn't even infer that. No you didn't. Toyg did. You implied it (arguably)
amanaplanacanal 8y ago
But one person can say "We are now at war!" and the missiles start flying. That seems like a much more fraught decision than whether or not to stay on daylight saving time.
- masonic 8y ago
  Pro tip: launch first, declare war later.
- toyg 8y ago
  In many countries, that is actually a prerogative of Parliament.

ddebernardy 8y ago

> FYI - most of your government, wherever you are from, is run by bureaucratic edict, not by political means. A more correct formulation would have read: > is run by bureaucratic edit within the boundaries set by lawmakers.

johnchristopher 8y ago

> I would vote for a bunch of ex-Google PM's and Engineers to literally take over my nations IT (especially in Health) to simplify and scale it. I have seen that happening (not with Googlers, not at a national level) within my province/state and now everyone has to deal with an inefficient global IT management service that is borderline useless and has the "know-it-all" syndrome. YMMV. (My department managed to be the rebel over the years and we have our own setup but it's slowly getting taken away from us.)