Adapting new technology not always easy job

The ongoing telephone saga at the Red Willow County Courthouse has been frustrating and disappointing for employees and citizens, who have a right to expect to be able to make and receive calls, and who expect their tax dollars to be used wisely.

It's just another sign of the times as we adjust to changing technologies and finding ways to adapt traditional functions of business and governent to the opportunities the new technologies offer.

Sending telephone calls over the Internet is nothing new; we remember an imbroglio in the early days of the Web when a company began offering long-distance Internet calls between Lincoln and Omaha, before regulators and taxing authorities had a chance to catch up.

The technology hasn't worked out so well at the courthouse, with poor call quality, interruptions, overlapping conversations and other complaints by users worried about being able to do their jobs properly, blamed in part on a poor Internet connection.

When the new phone system hasn't worked, employees simply used their personal cell phones, not an ideal situation but certainly workable.

Wireless might not be the answer -- would employees be required to carry two cell phones, one for work and one for home? -- but the declining cost of cellular plans certainly puts them in competition with land lines for business as well as private homes.

But that is only one example where government could take the lead from private industry and private citizens.

Why, for instance, was the rollout of the Healthcare.gov such a problem when sites like Amazon or eBay routinely carry out millions of complicated transactions every day?

And while the city has started accepting online and credit card payments for utilities, their cost should be brought more into line with those charged by banks or other utilities to make them an attractive alternative.

While government isn't motivated by profit the way private industry is, there's no reason every function it performs shouldn't be dissected to see if there are new, more efficient ways of accomplishing the same task.