Many of the non-profit organizations I work with still have expensive-to-publish-and-mail newsletters. Once in a while a board member will recommend discontinuing the printed newsletter in favor of an electronic replacement – At that point the howls begin! A small minority of the membership will argue they don’t have “the Internet” and therefore can’t download the electronic version. Then they threaten to quit and end up swaying enough board members to agree to continue the expensive-to-publish-and-mail newsletter.

Consider for a moment that the Personal Computer was introduced in 1981. For the first time, the user was no longer dependent on someone else for letter writing, photograph editing and printing, bank balance checking and on and on. Today, 28 years after the first Personal Computer, they’re omnipresent and a critical part of our communication ecosystem. Yes folks, it’s been 28 years.

Contrast that to Direct Distance Dialing (DDD), which was introduced for telephones in November 1951 in New Jersey*. Now, for the first time, the user could dial without an operator and “reach out” any time of day, to anyone they wanted to. In 1979, 28 years after the introduction of the phone, one could say that telephones had become omnipresent and a critical part of our communication ecosystem. Can you imagine anyone in 1979 walking into a board meeting and arguing that since he/she didn’t have a phone, the organization should not move to phones for member communications?

No, they were instructed to get a phone if they wanted to remain a participating member. End of discussion.

See where I’m going? It’s been 28 years since the introduction of the Personal Computer but we still tolerate, and spend mountains of dollars, satisfying those stubborn, selfish, Personal Computer retrogrades. We didn’t tolerate telephone retrogrades after 28 years. So why do we tolerate Personal Computer retrogrades? C’mon guys, it’s time to get with the 90′s! Get “the Internet” already!

* Note: For what it’s worth, the last manual switchboard in the US (actually in Maine) was retired in 1963.