Letting Go

Outdated technologies have a certain appeal. My fiancé collects 8-track tapes. He has over 1000 of them. He sees them as a snapshot of another time and collecting them is a mission to recapture a piece of bygone days. With computers, I’ve found that almost everyone likes to talk about the equipment they used back in the day (Commodore, Apple IIe, Atari, etc). The Sweetwater Library System’s (WY) “On the Same Page” blog recently included a humorous take on a gadget graveyard article, analyzing technologies that are about to become extinct. In a culture in which it feels like we’re rushing to keep up with the latest and greatest, it’s refreshing to remember things that feel simpler.

8-Tracks

There’s a flip side to the joys of nostalgia, of course. In the last week, I’ve heard stories from two different friends, lamenting the headaches outdated technology can cause. One library friend tweeted about the hours spent trying to make a DOS accounting program work (using a product that has not been updated since 1991). Another friend is starting a position as a library director and is preparing herself for the uproar she knows will ensue when she announces the need to move from the antiquated email system to something newer and better.

Total Cost of Ownership is a topic introduced to me by the MaintainIT Cookbooks (we hosted a webinar based on that cookbook content, too). I now realize that the costs associated with technology are much more than the purchase price. Many other things need to be considered (staff-time, licenses, electricity, repairs, etc). Technology reaches a point when it’s cheaper to replace it than it is to keep on maintaining it. (See: High Cost of Using Old Laptops and Nonprofits and Outdated Technologies )

Where do we find the balance between tossing perfectly functional equipment into the landfill (just because a newer version exists) and chugging along using something that is so outdated that it is a headache for its users?

    Landfill

This is something we’re thinking about more and more in our society – not just when it comes to technology, but with many things. The concepts of reducing, reusing, and recycling are increasingly important. I think things like retooling an outdated machine using Ubuntu are examples of this philosophy at work. Cost is a word currently defined as a number on a price tag, but I think in our lifetime we are going to see that word definition shift to mean more. 

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