In 1861, the Lincoln administration faced a dilemma. A major continent-wide war was about to erupt, and the Union intended to utilize the many miles of railroad tracks for transport of both soldiers and supplies—a revolutionary and innovative use of transportation.
But there was a problem. While railroads had sprung up all over the Union in the years before the Civil War, they were mostly very local affairs, designed to get the goods of local industries to ports or to connect canals. There was no national railroad system, though rails criss-crossed the nation. Each rail company used a different gauge—the distance between rails. The Lincoln Administration worked with railroad companies to adopt and support the 4 feet & 8.5 inch rail gauge, creating today's standard for the U.S. and Canada. Railroads went on to play a decisive role in the Civil War.
Government regulation of new technologies is controversial but nothing new. The need for a standard national railroad gauge is a pretty straightforward concept that anyone can grasp. But what about more complex new technologies that impact people's lives?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress earlier this year in April, and the world was treated to the scene of him having to explain Facebook's business model and social media to policy-makers who had come of age before personal computers were invented. And then there was the infamous example in 2006 of Senator Ted Stevens, commenting on the concept of net neutrality, who described the internet as "a series of tubes."
There's much to be argued about how our policy makers prepare for their votes on technology-related issues, but does the technology industry or the business world bear some responsibility for keeping policy makers apprised of new advances in technology? If so, does that include consultants, who are often the ones to help businesses and governments adapt these new technologies? Consultants have always had an uneasy relationship with governments.
We live in an age of accelerated change, where everybody—governments, individuals, businesses, academia, and even the technology sector itself—all struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of change. The economic and social dislocation this change can reap often provides the impetus for government regulatory intervention in markets. Data is a prime example, with the European Union's recent General Data Protection Regulation a prime example (and the US' relatively laissez-faire attitude towards data forming a dramatic counterpoint).
So should the business and technology world take on the job of keeping policy-makers informed? In some respects they already do. Policy-makers often reach out to industry experts, business leaders, academia etc. for information. But these are sporadic instances, usually only focused on a single, narrow issue.
And consultants have been working with governments in almost unprecedented volumes in recent years, particularly in the English-speaking world. This has drawn the ire of some political watch groups. But consultants also tend to work on tactical, targeted projects for governments, not policy matters. And there are real conflict-of-interest issues that make any advisory option dangerous, if not unlikely.
Like it or not, governments play a key role in economies and society. And policy making rightfully belongs in the hands of elected officials. In the (first) Industrial Revolution, change took years, even decades to unfold. But the pace of change today and its propensity for serious disruption demands awareness and understanding of the prime drivers of that change. There are whole categories of jobs being created today whose underlying technology did not exist just a few years ago. Given that in a democracy, the policy makers grappling with all of this are by definition amateurs, shouldn't there be some level of engagement between those creating this new technology world—including the consultants who help them strategize and operationalize it—and the policy makers whose decisions may fundamentally reshape future markets?
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