I do use the term white paper when speaking with a community that knows the term, e.g. when meeting with the Mass Tech Leadership Council’s healthcare cluster.

Methinks we need to take every aspect of our conversation out of the clouds and bring it to street level, where the people we’re aiding (ordinary folks in our lives) live and speak.

Isn’t that what Doc Tom would do? Heck, when he was asked to talk to first graders, he asked them what they’d like to hear about, and I’m sure he spoke in their terms.

Probably never told them he was writing a white paper, either.

(I’m not saying we shouldn’t have profound thinking beyond the level of everyday discourse – just saying we ought to deliver something to the general public.)

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the aphorism “Faith without works is empty.” In my view, something similar could be said about profound insights that never reach street level.

They are the cornerstone of everything else. Tom was incredible prescient when he wrote this early chapter. Everything in it has by now become the norm for many millions and so it is hard to imagine how disruptive his concept was when he wrote it.

I believe we should collectively review it and probably add more contemporary stories to show how the new technologies and various online universes have helped people become more or less efficient hunters and gatherers.

We now have to deal with the scourge of too much while we had to deal with not enough when we started talking about the White Paper. It is fascinating to see that moving from “too little” to “too much” has not changed our main problem. For many the appropriate information is still as hard to find!