Maker Movement Holy Ghost

Since reading Pappert and exploring the Maker Movement, I have tried to rethink normal ways of doing things.  Essentially we become beholden to the past, customs, and tradition.  We begin to do things although the action has no relevance and may actually be counterproductive.  

When I was in the army, we did reveille every morning.  By custom or tradition, reveille was design to wake soldiers up out of bed and to signify the duty day.  The bugler would come out at 5:55am at every post and play "First Call" to signify that "Reveille" would be played 5 minutes later.  In 2015, there is no need for a bugler or for Reveille to be played.  In current practice, every soldier in a garrison environment meets in a military formation to hear Reveille being played at 6am while saluting the flag before starting duties (usually physical exercise). The origination has lost its relevance.  Every soldier has synchronized watches and...soldiers are already awake by the time they hear it!  It is mostly now done out of tradition and custom.  It has no functional utility.

I have the same epistemological quandary as an Technical Support Specialist in the IT department in my organization.  Voice over IP (VoIP) was a significant advancement in how we utilize land line phones.  By custom and practice, the only reason an actually block phone on anyone's desk exist is mostly out of the idea that professional organizations have one on each desk.  VoIP runs the voice signal through internet lines.  You can have a communication telephonically utilizing a desktop/laptop device with proper hardware and software interfaces at a fraction of what it cost to still have an actual phone but we are still prisoners to custom.

In my organization, we have not replaced VoIP phones in over 10 years.  They are starting to have functionality issues.  Inside each phone is a handset wire which, in most phones, has reached fatigue.  It probably is time for new phones or a solution other than currently using broken phones.  I decided to take a phone apart to reverse engineer any broken or defective parts.  I am not an administrator with the ability to make large purchases so I use the old Marine Corps mantra of "adapt and overcome".  By taking apart a defective phone, I was able to observed a wire that no longer enabled signal flow to the handset.  

My solution was to use a paper clip.  By straightening out a paper clip then shaping it into the shape of a handset wire, it made the phone functional, again.  The metal of a paper clip has a longer fatigue life than the existing hardware.  As an IT specialist had to think outside the box to come up with a functional solution.  Although we still use phones, I can at least come up with cheap solutions to keep my organization functional even if they're beholden to outdated customs and traditions.