ArtOfGov

…as a collage of modernity.

Took this picture of the railway bridge which carries the main east coast line. Impressed by this fantastic feat of engineering. Then started thinking about ‘business process re-engineering’…and what on earth could that mean? But it’s a consultants term, like ‘downsizing’ and ‘transformation’. They make millions selling soundbites to clueless organisations.

Is the category of engineering so easily abused? Is there a similarity between this bridge and the ‘engineering’ of office based processes? As this bridge has been engineered, could it be re-engineered?

And then walking through the streets I heard someone say ‘I’ll facebook you later’. And I’m wondering, do the people who talk about ‘business process re-engineering’ use, or even understand what Facebook is?

And next I bought a copy of ‘Cyberspace’ edited by Michael Benedikt from the Oxfam bookshop. It was published in 1991. In the introduction, Benedikt explains the term cyberspace was first used in 1984.