Government, Powered by Google

Okay, two links to share before I go into my diatribe:

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/1326247&from=rss "America's New CIO Loves Google."

and

http://www.slideshare.net/domainlabs/building-more-transparent-effective-government-presentation "Building More Transparent and Effective Government: The Case Study of Washington D.C."

Okay, for one thing, any case study that uses the word "transparent," automatically should seem suspect. Transparency is the word "experts" use to make their audience think that all the information they need is revealed when, in reality, the reverse is the truth.

Second: I am terrified by the slide that shows the "Business/Gov't Tech Satisfaction" as being low UNTIL it has been powered by Google. When you're an "expert," and you are affiliated with a company AND have been asked by the government to research a solution about something--well, no flipping fig newton, of COURSE you're going to say that the company with which you're affiliated is the solution for fixing all the problems in the government. (And anyone who reads through this with an intelligent eye will recognize these arguments/anxieties.)

Implications: What are the implications on the American economic system of allowing a private corporation to be in charge of the digitization of America's records? I'm thinking about examples we've seen past and present of companies to which the American government (read: the American economy) has been too intimately tied. One example is Ford Motor Company, another example is Haliburton; I think of these two for different reasons, though I'd argue that each had multiple impacts.

What do we have to plan for electronic records management at a state university level, for instance, if the federal government is creating a digitization and ERM model through Google? Since I work at the archive for TTU campus, I recognize that this is a weighty question for all archivists to consider. Should Google be allowed to plug itself into all governmental archival practices? (And, another important question: has it already?)

I'm not trying to say that Google _IS_ the evil empire, but in some ways it is. I think the Google CEOs have demonstrated a lot of foresight in their digitization business model--and of course they're getting sued, but why shouldn't they?--but I also feel a lot of anxiety for obvious reasons. Google might BE the new Ford Motor Company: it is demonstrating incredible foresight; it is providing innovative solutions to problems that are only going to get worse without a modicum of remediation (and really, A LOT worse, and a LOT more than a modicum is needed); and it demonstrates the ability to achieve good solutions.

Even still, I can't stop the internal shudder when I see that "Business/Gov't Tech User Satisfaction: Powered by Google." And really, I'm using Blogspot, which also is . . . Powered by Google.