"Zen Government" Posts on ValleyZen

It’s been an exciting two months for ValleyZen.com. Since launch the blog has been:

• Featured on the home page of CNET News
• At the top of the Science & Technology page of leading Italian paper Corriere della Sera
• Covered by CBS Sci & Tech Correspondent Daniel Sieberg for a nationally syndicated radio segment
• Written up on the CBS TechTalk Blog.
• Feature article in CalLaw.com THE RECORDER.
• Invited as a guest on ABC KGO-TV’s View from the Bay…

Is the use of Information Technology by Government Bureaucracies Consistent with the Zen Concept of Simplicity?

Bureaucracies could learn from the Zen principle of simplicity. They have the incredible ability to add complexity to people’s lives: confusing them, cluttering their minds, and raising their anxieties. Simple, targeted, non-cluttered communication could greatly improve the quality of the interactions between citizens and bureaucracies. An extreme story of bureaucratic clutter illustrates this…

We are the country of “Winner Takes All.” There is only One National Champion, One Best Picture, One Album of the Year. If you happen to be #2, you might as well not exist.

But who is in a position to select a single winner? Who said that Michael Tilson Thomas’ Mahler is greater than Haitink’s Beethoven? And that the Dixie Chicks are even greater?