The magic of technology in the land of bureaucracy

Technology allows us to interact with each-other at an amazing speed, while our access to information is virtually limitless. It seems like magic, but still it has become a reality around which we construct our daily lives: we can pay our electricity and gas bills while sipping our coffee and we can seal a deal with the help of two e-mails and a telephone confirmation. We can find out what our friends and former colleagues have been up to by accessing different communication platforms, we can do online shopping and receive the purchased items at our home within 24 hours. However, when we need to make various payments to the state, from puny fees to fines and taxes, we have to run around to all kinds of offices, queue up and bitterly bite our fists in an attempt to have a non-aggressive dialogue with the public servants. The word “bureaucracy” has become so common in our daily conversations that it almost seems out of fashion. And yet, its timeliness is the other facet of our reality. We live in an information age which paradoxically and sadly overlaps this impenetrable age of bureaucracy. The information revolution has seeped into our society, but it still hasn’t touched the way the country is governed.    
The European Union’s Digital Agenda specifies that in theory three simple things could change the situation dramatically. They are total transparency, granting citizens more alternatives and increasing accountability among citizens.
The official website of the State of Missouri is a model of total transparency. Here people can see clearly how each dollar has been spent and what the current expenses are. Thus anyone can offer a viable solution and become a partner of the state. It’s amazing what people in the world of business can do with the help of new technologies.
If we use technology in the healthcare system, for instance, we can find out what operations have been successful, what best controls an infection, what doctors work in a certain hospital, and so on. In short, all the information, otherwise closed within the Ministry of Health, can be available to everyone, which allows people to make the best decisions to suit their needs.      
Another major intended change regards the increase of accountability among the public, while allowing them unrestricted access to information. For example, there is a crime map of Chicago and anyone can see what are the crime hot spots as well as the safe areas in town. Thus, any citizen can hold the police and the authorities accountable for the situation and there is no need for a governmental control body, paid from public funds, to run such assessments. 
These are just some of the measures intended to help us overcome the paradox of technology vs. bureaucracy. The actual implementation of such measures and the hindrances along the way are, as usual, a totally different story.