Clinton has new tech advisor but State-driven projects will remain ineffective

Let me offer this background before discussing the arrival of Alec Ross as a techno-diplomat at State.

In 2004, I spent a couple months in Uganda, putting together the Uganda Digital Bookmobile. Inspired by the Internet Archive's Bookmobile Brad deGraf and I obtained funding from the World Bank and deployed a revolutionary system to bring new books into Uganda libraries and schools. We made a lot of books and gave a lot of kids a glimmer into a totally different world.

Overall, I'd say it was a failure. While there are a few things that could have been done better, the reason it was a failure is that we were utterly on the margins of impacting the education system in that country. We were working in an entrepreneurial way but we were never able to find a champion who wanted to use our idea to transform education. Ulimately, we were showing up with a technology without an organizational structure. We were suggesting that our approach could radically shift the educational paradigm. We found support from a number of NGOs, none of which had the funds to push us forward. The power structure remained blissfully unaware and uninterested in the possibilities.

Fast forward to Nick Negroponte and the XO. Another failure. The conventional widsom is that Negroponte screwed up by asking governments to pony up millions of dollars for the machines and utterly failing to address the need for support. Organization agan. But I submit something else was going on:

Technology can have not only a transformative but also a dispruptive effect on education, business and ultimately government. Developing governments simply don't want that kind of change.

So, now: Hillary Clinton has created a new position at State -- senior adviser on innovation -- specifically for Ross, who built the Obama campaign's tech policy under Julius Genachowski. Here's the promo on Ross:

"Secretary Clinton believes technology is a powerful tool to address the priorities of the State Department, including promoting human rights and vibrant democracies, fostering development and enhancing the impact of smart power," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "Alec's track record of successfully using technology for development initiatives around the world made him an ideal candidate for this job."

The Washington Post lists some possible projects that could deploy tech in interesting ways: Text messaging as a medical alert system ("take your pills"). Social networking for cultural exchange. Use supply chain software to ensure aid is actually delivered.

"I don't believe tech is an end into itself to solve problems," Ross said, "but it can be a critical part of the solution."

Yes, tech is crucial to deploying State Dept.-style solutions. But ultimately it comes down to this. The system wants technology to stay on the margins, to address emergencies without threatening the status quo. "Real change" will be about making technology central to education, government and business. That's not going to happen by text-messaging villagers.

But, hey, the developing world isn't alone in wanting technology to stay on the edges. Just look at the 19th century disaster area we call public education in the United States. Photo by arcticpenguin