The digital revolution promised to change everything and revise many aspects of our lives, in in particular those linked to the relationship with the State and its institutions . These promises were however largely disregarded , with inefficiencies and complications that make doing business in Italy more difficult than necessary . A striking example of this failure is the use of the so-called “click days” for the payment of bonuses and compensation. A symbol of failure not due to improbable hacker attacks or infrastructure problems, but to a digital re-presentation of analog dynamics. Ultimately, a cultural problem .

Why was the bike bonus a failure? Cultural reasons

Unless a huge infrastructure is available, it can be expected that hundreds of thousands of users attempting to carry out operations lead to problems A concept that appears elementary even to non-experts, but which does not seem to have frightened the creators of the “click day” for the bicycle bonus, who have implemented a code system absolutely Byzantine with the illusion of being able to manage the amount of requests. Which, given the aforementioned system, was widely expected.

The problem, in this case, does not lie in the fact that the infrastructure did not hold up. It was not the real problem even for the “click day” in April, when the INPS servers did not withstand the connection requests from professionals. The real problem is that someone decided that a “click day” was a good idea .

As I wrote at the beginning, the promise of digital was to change the dynamics and relationships between citizens and institutions. This promise was not broken because digital is not able to fulfill it, but because the logic prior to the digital world has been applied . Google does not queue users when they do a search, nor does Amazon ask them to wait their turn to be able to make their purchases. So why should citizens have to be asked to queue up with their computer as if they were in a post office?

The system is so convoluted and irrational that it borders on the absurd. The complication at a technical level in implementing a similar system is considerable and far superior to the many alternatives present: just to name two, there is the return to the current account following the presentation of the tax return, or the application of discounts from part of the resellers who subsequently receive a refund. Ideas are wasted and are in any case better than the one actually implemented.

The reason why we insist on proposing these inadequate methods lies in the mentality : those who think about these implementations are firmly in the first half of the twentieth century and seems to have no intention of going further. The cultural approach is the same as fifty years ago and, given the complete revolution introduced by the digital in our society, one cannot but think of the Gattopardo by Tomasi di Lampedusa: everything must change so that nothing changes. And until politics decides to put a stop to these modalities by imposing more modern ones, we will continue to make virtual queues .

“Click days” are the fruit of an immobile culture and the proverbial tip of the iceberg of a bureaucratic system that harms everyone, starting with taxpayers. But for there to be a change on this front, one must first take place on another: we must each assume their responsibilities and that you pay the consequences of your actions, whether positive or negative. Only then will all the rest come.

Technological and cultural changes: an inseparable pair

Understandably, it does not take well the disservices of the PA

The various innovations that technology offers – open source tools, cloud, containers and so on – suddenly become less useful, less profitable, less able to realize their potential if there is no core culture ready to embrace change that new technologies require and make them their own. Because otherwise the risk is to use the hydrogen tractor, yes, but to have it pulled by oxen instead of the plow. The evolution of the means of production influences that of culture and vice versa, but if one of the two is blocked (in this case the cultural one) then the other will also block; the change of technological means cannot but proceed hand in hand with a change in the approach to them. This can be seen very well in the corporate world, where companies that manage to make this evolution their own thrive and those that remain firm encounter difficulties and, if they do not change, end up being overtaken by their competitors and close.

Using the cloud makes little sense if you use it exactly like a server from twenty years ago , just as using containers makes no sense if you do not take advantage of their intrinsic characteristics of flexibility and agility. To exploit these new means, a profound change of approach is required, which challenges many of the concepts already learned and used. But just as each of us is required to continue learning, hone their skills and move into new and unexplored fields, so must the public administration be required. Let’s be clear: the problem is not only in the public, as evidenced by several studies (it was discussed, for example, at the D-Avengers conference at the Bocconi University in Milan). In Italy we do not invest in training, which means that we do not invest in preparing for change and evolution . But the world, since it has existed, has never stood still and expects us to move with it. Otherwise you are left behind, with all the consequences of the case.