Trying to put the GO in eGOV for the Texas Department of Information Resources. Background in Sociology from UC Berkeley and Technology Management from University of Texas, Austin. Grew up outside of Los Angeles, lived in the Bay Area for a few years, and now a naturalized Texan, without the boots and gigantic eagle belt buckle. Connect with Jon on Twitter and his blog.
I’m defending the iPad. Not because I’m an Apple fanboy. Not because I’m going to buy one. But because I think there’s potential to positively change the personal computing experience in a way that helps government sleep better at night. I’m not talking about the iPad itself, but what the App store can become via the iPad.
When my son turned three, we got him a bike with training wheels. He did quite well, but when it came time to take off those training wheels, he violently refused. Even a three year-old knew that going from four wheels down to two would increase his chances of falling from zero to incredibly high. That’s because training wheels aren’t actually training wheels. They’re impeding wheels. They rob you of the chance to learn balance, which is the most important lesson in riding a bike. It doesn’t matter how good you can pedal or steer, you have little chance of success if you can’t balance.
