"Brazil" in EU

I have seen many times the incredible "Brazil" movie

I have laughed bitterly many times as few people understand the depth of the movie better than those actually working or having worked in bureaucracies ... I mean those at least that are not completely embedded into their functioning, and are still able to laugh at it!

The thing that ticked me off into writing this was a folder I received by internal snail mail few weeks ago ...

There is every so often a carton folder of about 400-500 grams that arrives on my desk with a cover page called "Circulation Rapide" (which is kind of self explanatory ...) and the respective signature sheet so that there is a proof you read it (very few actually do)

This is how we get to access the information the hierarchy believes is important enough to be shared with the rest of staffers.

The funny thing about it is that much of its contents are actually e-mails that are printed out, approved for circulation by the hierarchy with a great multitude of stamps and signatures on them, that are photocopied a great number of times, to be then compiled into folders for each sector/ unit etc. These folders are then circulated manually from one office to the other by a clerk pushing around corridors a pretty large trolley packed with folders and mail ...

The hall of fame of these documents was a photocopy (with 4-5 stamps on it) of an e-mail that was talking of a new website that was just launched !! That was brought to me by "Circulation Rapide" 2 weeks later by internal snail mail ...

This is an image that in 2008 makes me really feel weird...

This is what happens when large administrations (for example the European Commission) keep in simultaneous use all the Information management systems it has ever used since the 60ies !

We have the completely manual paper only system "signatories, clerks and trolleys, paper archives" of the 60ies - 70ies in parallel and perfect duplication the the later "shared drive and e-mail" system of the 80ies - 90ies in parallel and (almost) perfect duplication with "web based applications and tools"of late 90ies early 2000 ... (however badly designed these are ...)

Another sticking example of how "efficient" this is ... is archives
Most of the time paper archives are the only ones officially kept. The funny thing again is that a large part of these paper archives are just printed e-mails or printed versions of documents that exist in shared drives. Then again even if you keep (most don't) mailboxes and documents from people changing posts or leaving the Commission, they are pretty useless as there is no way to search through these to find anything (googledesktop for example is forbidden)

The result of this is a very inefficient information system that has many repercussions both internally (and externally I guess ...)

One of the reasons for this situation I believe, is the dramatic gap in comprehension and practice that exists among various generations of staffers or even middle an senior management and the lack of incentives or vision to actually break off from these deep seated and mechanically reproduced practices ...

Trying to bring in web 2.o in such a context is a very tough task but I believe worth pursuing ...

When you have tasted to the ease and power of the tools that exist today, you can only bitterly laugh or become really pissed with the situation described above...

All these vendors and gurus that evangelized the paperless administration since late 80ies and got their pockets full for it ... should really see the paper-mess we got in...

[There was 1 Comment By Michael
Michael Said ...
That's incredible! I didn't really appreciate that stuff as crazy as this actually went on. Suddenly I realise just how fortunate I am to work for a relatively far-sighted non-profit.
Posted on 29 August 2008 11:33]