http://www.techpresident.com/techpres/collaborative_government Comments for "collaborative government" en http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/24166/politicsweb2_0_on_the_future_of_government_in_the_digital_era#comment-1973 <p>FWIW, I think there's a big clash here between "letting citizens do things" and "citizens wanting to do things" - and the resources that each party thinks citizens need to achieve these. Central-driven initiatives often seem to focus on getting the information out to people - the key word is "transparency". This stems fundamentally, I think, from a representative democratic perspective, but it jars with the latter notion - a more involved, more participatory democracy. Citizens that want to do things themselves (rather than *know* things that other people are up to) don't want information, they want communication. The difference is between what people say, and how they say it.</p> <p>UK politics is almost in the same situation that the "traditional" record companies are in. Listeners don't want to just buy music, they want to recommend it, move it from place to place, chop it up and remix it. In the same way, citizens don't just want to know what the government is up to - they want to take the information, personalise it, swap it with each other, use it for their own goals, etc.</p> <p>If the government doesn't get this, then it *will* become redundant. Communications will route around it. New forms of local number-crunching and info-sharing will make centralised data "supplemental" at best, and "irrelevant" at worst - information depends entirely on what people need it for, and getting stuff done with fuzzy data is far better than being paralysed by too much data.</p> Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:38:00 -0400 scribe comment 1973 at http://www.techpresident.com http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/24166/politicsweb2_0_on_the_future_of_government_in_the_digital_era#comment-1971 <p>Fascinating to hear your take. This was the point I laughed out loud:</p> <p>"DirectGov and BusinessLink ... Both have low brand recognition and problems competing with other sources."</p> <p>she's 100% right about young people and I almost said hallelujah! praise her! out loud at the rest.</p> <p>you don't know the half of it being inside the monster, Micah ...</p> <p><a href="http://www.paulcanning.me.uk" title="www.paulcanning.me.uk">www.paulcanning.me.uk</a><br /> web stuff and other ramblings<br /> ~~~~~~~~~~~</p> Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:48:19 -0400 paulcanning comment 1971 at http://www.techpresident.com