We have one dangerous trait. We don't mind mediocrity, and make excuses (some may call it providing logic) to let it pass and persist. It is not a trait that we encourage in schools, where getting better grades is of supreme interest to parents, and most teachers do their best in that regard as well. Somehow, its a very visible phenomenon around us.
The author of
What Would Google Do?, tells how his bad experience with a Dell laptop led him to vent on his blog, and how that subsequently led to a large following of people with similar experiences. Though that led to highlighting how Google searches for Dell's laptops used to bring out his blog post, its also an indication of the nature of 'social' interactions that the Internet makes possible. In this case, the customers became social on the issue of how Dell laptops were under-performing and it led to serious loss of value for the manufacturers. Almost all good companies now have extensive support channels on the Internet to receive customers' issues and follow up on them. Its what builds a strong brand.
Internet users in Bangladesh are also seeing a rise in the number of services/products that are accessible to them online. More than that, they are also seeing the rising number of advertisements from neighboring India on satellite television, and they are in a position to realize how long a way there is to go. When and how the private web organizations will spring up, probably depends on how soon we can ensure a solid, secure payment/delivery mechanism for products and services here. As far as public services go, the much drummed about 'Digital Bangladesh' is still sluggish and seems misguided.
Not going into the issue what kind of companies were given the projects, and if that is the cause of the 'mediocrity' in this area, I would like to highlight how the involved organizations could take notes on what is happening there from the web itself.
We can all feel that a taskforce might be scanning our social media for anti-government material, or anti-patriotic materials, which might incite violence and other forms of undesirable events. But are they scouring the materials to understand where improvements might be made. That sort of thing, probably falls low on agendas now, and there lies the pity.
I wrote a post down myself on the
failures of our 'Digital Bangladesh' to make something that really elevated the quality of a service. Meanwhile, I found my friend pointing out that the Digital Bangladesh website, was actually a screenshot! Well, isn't that a shame! Its been that way for months, since my previous post was made in February of this year.
One point from my post above was to broaden the activities of the post office in carrying paper around to reduce massive amounts of people doing so individually. I found another blogger that pointed out
Bangladesh Post Office also has a website, and that its been
hacked! Meanwhile, another
blog reveals (or confirms) that having computers doesn't necessarily make our lives better, and also reports on an actual expansion of services there.
Recently I went to the website of the National ID project and saw "Nick name" being spelt as 'Nike name". Nothing is more mediocre than a spelling mistake on such a website. The purpose of my visit was to find out how to change my address on the card, and that page had links to two missing forms I should fill out! However, today the files were available for download.
Some of us dearly want our government offices to change the culture of go-slow, or illegal costs, and most people don't know who will really hear their stories and make those changes. Some of us haplessly keep writing on our Facebook, and our blogs about what we're suffering from. All we need now, is someone to take note of them.
