I agree with this. We (IT people) are so self-centred that it hurts. :) We do "everything" - we "entertain" ourselves with new approaches, frameworks, management ideas - except actually "talking" to and "knowing" our users, their life ands true needs.
It's particularly sad, at least for me, to see UX also being "shaped" like this. We can get essay-like posts on building an icon family, yet it's hard to find good content regarding how company X got to know their users and build what they really wanted.
Isn't all the work by steve-blank and the lean-startup deals with it?
Alas, because the startup scene is overwhelmingly centered in the Bay Area and is dominated by white upper-middle-class American men, white-upper-middle-class American male itches get scratched first.
Let's say a FB group for nurses in Uttar Pradesh, where they can share their thoughts and ideas. You'd use the foot-approach to educate a part of the group. They can then gather experience, validate their learning and spread that. The idea would be that tech makes the idea spread faster, with you having to educate less people by foot.
The impact might be improved by working geographically, so that each nurse talking to the nurses she knows would be unlikely to talk to one already educated. But then, maybe overlapping groups would reinforce the learning. :p
Also, reminds me of an idea of an NGO had to record testimonies by voice calls, and then playing these testimonies to their peers. Still not the same as building a relationship, but probably goes in the same direction.