Red State, Blue State, Internet State
Were he alive today, Thomas Jefferson would have sage advice for all us in the wake of the midterm elections.
With boundless confidence in the wisdom of individual citizens, Jefferson believed that America would be best off if we could access the individual voices of our citizens and somehow combine those voices into a collective wisdom. He was always trying to “democratize” our process, enfranchising the citizens with power, giving them voice.
With his fierce loyalty to the democratization of America, Jefferson would have loved the Internet. By enabling “user-based” pricing, the Internet has democratized computing, allowing even the smallest groups to purchase the right to use powerful applications that heretofore could be afforded only by the largest of companies and organizations. And because the customer pays a subscription, rather than purchasing an “all you can eat supply”, the customer, for the first time, has the power in the technology market: if the application doesn’t perform, the customer just cancels the subscription and find an application that will deliver. This is fundamental enfranchisement, Jeffersonian style.
The midterm elections were full of examples of people leveraging the Internet to enfranchise and empower ever-increasingly large groups of people. Red-leaning, Blue-leaning, and independents alike.
Jefferson’s advice in the wake of the midterms would be this: Embrace the Internet revolution. Use its new cost structure and flexibility to drive the changes you need in your own surroundings.
In the field of environmental, health, and safety compliance, Jefferson’s advice rings true. Internet-based, “on demand” applications make it possible for each company to limit its technology investment to that amount necessary to deliver the solution required. Because the solutions implement quickly, without code writing, these programs deliver “time to value” that cannot be achieved with traditional enterprise software.
Join the revolution.
This article originally appeared in the 01/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
About the Author
Lawrence Goldenhersh, JD, is founder, president, and CEO of Enviance Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.