Large public organizations that adopted computers in the early 1960s ever since have been accumulating “electronic mounds” consisting of layers upon layers of computer systems, data cemeteries, and software-inscribed, special case rules. These electronic mounds acquire a life of their own and are responsible for huge amounts of new electronic red tape that, in turn, inhibit flexibility, innovation, and reform. However, these electronic mounds are also the living carriers of organizational memory and needs, past and present. Organizations must learn how to coexist with their electronic mounds rather than constantly try to modernize them.
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