Innovation: Horror and Irony

I've been doing much research on innovation lately, which is the reason behind my sporadic posts. Today, an event of such ironic proportions occurred, that I feel that I must share it with readers.

There are two US cities with chief innovation officers: San Francisco and Philadelphia. Since I'll be presenting this fall and next spring on innovation, I thought it would make good sense to reach out to these CIOs in order to learn about their roles and responsibilities, etc., so that I might share that information with school leaders.

Scene One

I perform a search for the Philly CIO. I find the website for Office of Innovation and Technology for the City of Philadelphia. I click on Contact Us, and below is what I see:

Ironic, isn't it? (Please tell me that you see the irony here...). That's it, the entire Contact Us page.

Scene Two

After searching frantically for some possible way to contact the office by email, I break down and pick up my phone. I connect with a wonderful receptionist--really pleasant, helpful, etc. I explain to her that I'm with a K-12 school not far from Philadelphia and that I'm researching the concept of innovation in schools; specifically, I say, I'm collecting data from chief innovation officers and that I've created a Google Form for that purpose. I ask, "Is is possible that the CIO might participate in this research project by filling out the form?"

Answer: "Sure. Why don't you fax it to...(number)."

Afterword

Finally, I obtained the email address of the executive assistant to the chief innovation officer, and I have sent her the link to the Google Form.

Here's hoping they figure out how to click the link and fill out the form...

Connections/Reflections

1. Film "Apocalypse Now." Enter Kurtz, at the end with the voiceover, "The horror...the horror."

2. Perhaps I'm simply pedantic in this regard, but I assumed that this office could be contacted by electronic means, given that its title is the Office of Innovation and Technology.

3. It must rank up there in the record books of "things ironic."

Good grief, Charlie Brown...