Thoughts from innocents and from experts

December 28 is The Innocents’ Day which, in several countries, is the equivalent of April Fool Day, when people play practical jokes and hoaxes. On that day I met Bebita. She was a retired lady, about seventy, who even before knowing my name, scolded me for having consulted my mobile phone while we were waiting for a mutual friend who would finally introduce us. To tell her that I was just checking the time because I didn’t wear a wristwatch would just have triggered more reprimands from her, so I did not try to convince her that I was not trying to read emails or instant messages or sending or receiving Tweets, or checking the weather, since I had just come in, or following the WAZE users traffic advices, or the news, football games or even less, much less, watching how one of my Blog Posts was rated.

Bebita, who had worked all her life as a public officer, continued slapping against technology, in such a determined manner that I thought it was a joke. “I do not want the direct deposit of my pension on a bank account that I can handle through impersonal machines like robots scattered in a pharmacy, supermarket or movie hall; I want my check, and deal with the cashier when he checks the signature.” I don’t want to use my granddaughter’s computer to submit a social security form, I want to do it personally, and to be attended by responsible and helpful employees” .-“Even if this means waiting in line for a long time?” – I asked her to continue playing the fool. “Even so, I have a right to see and talk to people, and they have the obligation to attend me“. Those were Bebita’s final words.

I have never been what you would call a pioneer in adopting new technologies, even if some consider me as such. But, over time, I met many who quickly adopted the Web as a way for obtaining news, and social media, and smart phones, and tablets, e-readers for books and magazines. These pioneers always applied to new technologies the old saying “The early bird catches the worm”.  It is also true that what they had adopted so fast was as well quickly abandoned when something better, more efficient, more fashionable, or just newer, was released. So their saying was also” Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today. “I was also aware that if there are pioneers, some by contrast are relegated when they don’t follow the trend. These are people who, by lack of opportunity or curiosity, by resistance or by fear of change, do not use these new tools. However, Bebita was the first person I knew who chose to oppose technology by conviction and there she was, telling to us, pioneers and internet-addicts, that “You can take an old horse to water but you cannot make him drink.”

It is hard to resist the temptation to identify the decisive moments for changes, the big turning point, or for the beginning of a new course. It is also difficult to immediately notice their importance.  Many people remember the year when the man walked on the moon for the first time or when the euro was introduced, because these events touched immediately all people’s wisdom. However, other events start being unnoticed. This is the case with the “World Wide Web” or simply “the Web”, which very few people by January First would have noticed. But its implementation transformed forever business, personal life, the way we interact with people, with organizations and companies, creating a “before” and an “after”. For some followers of the printed media in the world, particularly news and opinion, 2012 will be remembered as the year when Newsweek, a major American publication for eight decades, has decided to leave the paper and choose an exclusively electronic channel for publication.

Smaller groups, that some would call focus groups, or other would call “our readers” remember things that changed a particular sector, such as the date of a tax reform, the year when tax and customs administrations merged, or the year when VAT was introduced.

Many national and local tax administrations are committed to implement electronic documents and services. Segments of taxpayers are forced to make their transactions only through electronic means. Some have defined as strategic objectives the use of electronic filing by one hundred percent of their taxpayers. Only electronic documents are being defined.  This makes sense to me, it is efficient, safe, and perhaps it is the only way to cross information and to ensure proper tax compliance. But at the same time I cannot stop imagining Bebita talking to these administrations and their innovative officials, angry at the increasing technological presence in the relationship between people and the Administration. Holding in her hand a paper version of this post, Bebita is watching us and questioning us.

Greetings and good luck

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