Bill Gates, the whizkid, IT Czar, has come out with a thought provoking, very educative, and very informative book that can easily be understood easily by everyone. Few chapters are bit technical, but one can make broad sense out of these chapters too. Reading the book has been a profound and very satisfying and rich experience for me.
Gates advocates complete digitalization of all aspects of life, and expounds a theory of Digital Nervous System, which envisages paperless offices, on-line, real-time transactions in a totally networked environment in a web based work style.
Gates talks about web-lifestyle, knowledge management, empowerment down to the last person in line, pooling and sharing of information on line which then becomes the bank of knowledge for everyone to access. He gives numerous examples of the applied digitalization in various Corporations, Government organisations, Schools & Educational institutions, US Armed forces etc. that have reaped enormous benefits of the same.
The entire concept, as well as the benefits thereof have been explained in detail, which make excellent sense and are very convincing. I got great insights into the scope and extent of improvements that the networked environment and total computerisation can bring about, especially in a country like India where there is so much to be done! We haven’t even started yet. I am happy that, irrespective of the current downtrend, my kids, who are into computers, will never be unemployed!
Master salesman that Bill Gates is, he doesn’t let any opportunity go by without extolling the virtues of Microsoft and it’s various products, makes a sales pitch here too, and subtly hints that ultimately the entire world should operate on a Windows platform.
All this is fine, but I have a few scary scenarios, which frighten me, every time I read a book like this;
Given the fact that hackers are penetrating most secured sites and databases, Banks are being defrauded, passwords and PIN codes are stolen, dangerous viruses are around which manage to jump all high security firewalls…. there is an unknown, invisible enemy lurking around out there somewhere, in such a situations, how can we surrender all our data, info, knowledge, records and secrets to a digital warehouse which doesn’t have any physical protections, locks or impenetrable barriers of security and safety?
A virus, malfunction, or any such thing can wipe out the entire record….how and wherefrom do we retrieve and recreate the record? And at what cost?
The cookies, embedded software, firmware, middleware, or even parts of hardware can make any PC, any Server accessible to any one person, agency or an institution like Intel, MS, or CIA, and they will have the power to intrude and disable or self destruct your machine…then what? One electronic signal can bring an entire country , any selected institution like a Bank to a grinding halt…then what? Maybe I have read too many conspiracy theories of Ludlum, but then the possibilities exist!
A strong electromagnetic wave, radiation, grid failure etc, can cause a total, breakdown…there is no parallel system to keep things going, the old working style in the name of ’’legacy’’ has long back been disbanded, then what? We see this chaotic scenario for IA ticketing everytime the Indian Airlines system crashes.
Any other software problem like the Y2k Bug, can once again create a havoc..then what?
Complete digitalization and digital nervous system on a national scale, obviously will need a battery of experts and dedicated specialist who alone can keep the thing going..If they go on strike? We have seen Air traffic controllers, Doctors, Postal workers, Teachers, Petrol Bunks, and Chemists going on strike and holding the society to ransom, but can we afford the digital experts bringing the complete country to a dead halt?
In an organisation where I was working, we had gone completely digital ’’officially’’, ( but privately we maintained physical paper records), I have practically experienced the chaos everytime the centralised mail server crashed, many hard discs got wiped out in my department…it was a total mess! No records…and auditors were breathing down our necks! The private records saved us. Thereafter we decided that we may have a paperless office, but there will be a parallel office for paper!
We still have a long way to go to make things fool proof, absolutely trustworthy and reliable, safe and secure…till that happens I don’t think we can create a paperless World! Till that time Bill Gates you have to wait atta boy!