Sometimes having a job title can be very restricting. Somehow it can define you, categorise you and even place you in a pigeon hole from which you find it difficult to emerge. I work in information and communications technology, ICT. In fact I don’t, I work in management and just happen to ply my trade in an ICT department. I therefore have a job title that is commensurate with my position and clearly reflects the role that I am supposed to play.
But I do other things as well, I have other interests both at work and outside and one of these happens to be access to digital services for all. The lack of effective broadband (super or classic) is a social problem. Issues such as deprivation, economic regeneration and social inclusion are all affected by access to digital services which are ultimately underpinned by the availability or lack of broadband.
This modern world is becoming ever more and more connected and broadband is no longer a nice to have but is an essential and not just so that we can play more games online or so that we can buy more of our goods online or so that we can chat with more of our friends online, no for many more reasons. Despite all of the technology that we have at our disposal we are only at the beginning of the technical age. Even the most able futurologist has no real concept of where digital technologies will take us over the next decades. They will underpin every key activity of our lives, if they are not doing so already.
Broadband will underpin our competitive position, our ability to trade, the skills that we offer to employers and the markets in which we buy and sell and so it is an economic issue.
Broadband will underpin our learning through improved access to materials and interactive teaching aids. With so much information at our disposal the ability to find and filter information will be more important than the ability to remember facts and so it is an educational attainment issue.
Broadband will underpin medical advances in diagnosis, monitoring of illness, the prevention of causing factors and the relationship between the medics and the patients. Surgery is being performed online now in ways that transcend a human surgeon’s ability and this work will continue to become more exact and less invasive.
The list goes on and on.
So why is it that when I stand up and say to people that this problem is not about technology they think it must be because I am in ICT? Why else would I be talking about it? I talk about services and users. I even use the analogy of the railways, with tracks, trains and passengers but people still come back to how it works, what speeds they will get and where will the cabinets be sited.
I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that people hear my job title and decide what I am going to talk about. They listen to my words but don’t hear what I have to say. They hear the bits that support their views of me and filter out those that don’t and this is all down to the fact that I have introduced myself as someone from the ICT department.
Next time I think I’ll just say I work for the council and see is I fare any better.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 
Very well said.
Everyone is guilty of making judgement on people before they meet them or hear what they have to say. Through action and education we can try to change attitude but only if people want to change. The same is a bit true of services such as broadband. Some people might wonder what use broadband would be for them but that’s because they have not had the opportunity to experience the world of opportunity broadband can open up.