Move the Information to the People
I just finished reading about the Department of Rail & Public Transportation's launch of a “Super NoVa” study to focus on the future of transportation in Northern Virginia.
I am profoundly disappointed. Our leaders and visionaries continue to focus on moving people, cars, trains, buses, and roads around to get knowledge workers to the information they need to do their jobs. These people are missing the obvious... and doing a profound disservice to Northern Virginia. The focus should be on leveraging technology to move the information around.
This isn't a transportation problem... it's an information problem.
Knowledge is a relatively fluid commodity. It may be accessed anywhere and everywhere. It may be accessed via broadband, fiber, wifi, or several other technologies and stored ubiquitously in a "cloud." It really doesn't matter if you are in Manassas, VA; Golden, CO; a beach in the Bahamas; or a mountain in the Himalayas. It doesn't require that you "live" somewhere; a knowledge worker may work from a back deck watching the sunrise, at a Starbucks over a Latte, or from anywhere in America in a Volkswagen Camper (I really regret selling my Volkswagen Camper... it's the perfect mobile office).
The "problem" is that our supposed visionaries are locked in an industrial age model.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
We have the wrong people working on this problem. The simple fact this project is being lead by the Department of Rail & Public Transportation frames and limits solutions. These folks only know how to move people around. We need some folks pondering our future who know how to move information around. We need to add some technologists to the transportation planning mix. It appears those who would cover Northern Virginia with asphalt know how to do little else. Their frame of reference is management by observation and the eight hour day. They are happy to pave over what little is left of our planet, risk the lives of our knowledge workers by putting them on the road a couple of hours every day, pollute our air, contaminate our water, and destroy our quality of life to continue to focus on moving people around instead of moving knowledge around.
It's time to think differently. Its time to take knowledge out of cubes and offices and let it flow to where the labor exists to perform the task.
The title "Super NoVa" is a great name for a project to redefine work and how it is performed. It is a disservice to Northern Virginia to use such a great title on such an antiquated model. It's "lipstick on a pig".
The President signed the Telework Enhancement Act in December of last year. That act gave all Federal Agencies six months to roll out implementation plans. Virginia offers tax incentives to encourage businesses to implement telework. Our transportation planners continue to ignore these mandates and look for ways to pave our planet.
Yes, we need roads, buses, rail, and other transportation solutions. We also need to integrate telework into our transportation strategy as more than a "footnote" to appease folks like me. It should be the focus, not an afterthought.
Our focus should be using technology to take people off the roads versus using machinery to pave more roads. We need transportation planners who understand this simple value proposition: It's easier to move information to the folks who need it than to move people to the information.
Nathan Curby
8:19 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Interesting article, Al. Do you think that state and local agencies should stop working on transportation infrastructure altogether, or is there room to do some road construction and improvement while simultaneously promoting telework?
Al Alborn
9:01 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I am in a Prince William Chamber of Commerce meeting at the moment with three State Senators and four Delegates. All of them talk about the fact we are running out of money for new roads and transportation solutions. I have previously heard Virginia Transportation Secretary Connaughton candidly state that the BRAC transportation study is seriously flawed and we may expect "gridlock" when BRAC is turned on. Simply put, we're "broke", we lack capacity, and the problem will only get worse... unless we change the way we think.
We need to "rethink" how we approach the transportation problem. We need to reframe the problem as "accessing information" instead of "moving people to the information." We need to expand how we connect people information they require. I simply ask that telework be included in Northern Virginia's transportation strategy so we start thinking about how to take people off the road instead of focusing exclusively on building more roads.
Lest stop thinking about how to move people to the information and start planning to move information to the people.
Connie Moser
11:12 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Al certainly gets to the heart of things! We are definitely in agreement on the need to promote telework, develop ways to make it easier for people to stay in their communities and off the roads.
That's excellent insight regarding the "who is developing the Super Nova plans" ...if only transportation people work the project, we're only going to get more of the same. We need new ideas, big thinkers and willingness to speculate, evaluate and innovate!
Cindy Brookshire
11:32 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I have a client in Fairfax that i work with on a multi-month project....and went to their location TWICE this summer. Everything else is done by phone / computer. I have helped plan community projects that involve people in at least five locations ... all handled in webinar meetings -- and more productive. I meet once a month by conference call with another group. I fill my gas tank once every two weeks ... and that only because of groups that insist on having all their meetings at the McCoart Center -- can't they use Ashton Ave or Chamber HQ or other locations for some of their meetings on the western end of the county? Unity in the Community alternates their monthly meetings from the eastern to the western end of the county to save people from traveling. Why can't people be more creative in their decisions? It's because they want the control of face-to-face meetings or control of seeing bodies in cubicles or the control of driving alone rather than carpooling. I get more done, more efficiently, work harder and longer being independent. Let go! Remember the scene from "Contact" when people tried to bolt down Jody Foster to the space capsule they built? LET GO.
Connie Moser
12:41 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I selfishly am grateful for functions at McCoart so I don't have to drive to the Western end of the county :-)
I don't see why we can't use Skype or Google to teleconference some meetings....the BOCS broadcasts live- what would it take for them to set up a return link so those of us at home watching the meeting, could call in during citizen's time? (So much better than texting or sending e mail to our supervisors during a meeting!)