Government Producers Council
Jock Gill says we need to redefine the electorate as active
producers of good government, not passive consumers of government services.
(Jock finds the customer label as pejorative as consumer.
He'd probably buy Doc's
distinction between the two, but perhaps finds it too subtle to make his
intended point):
The crucial differences in our communications in 2004
are:
- low cost many to many communications, supporting micro
markets with zero costs, is a radical disruptive innovation that trumps
one to many
communications
with high capital costs demanding mass markets with high financial returns.
- the diffusion of many to many communications has
crossed the threshold of critical mass and has become a self sustaining
chain reaction: gone
critical.
- the technologies of many to many communications are
rapidly improving -- full multi-media chat, for example. Good bye text
only environments.
Video, voice and text, is much more compelling. This will only
accelerate the adoption
of modern many to many communications
- all of the above can be seen in a new phenomena:
cable modem users active, engaged, PRODUCERS.
BTW: this last point turns the business models
of the cable tv companies on its head. They have neither the architecture
nor the technology
to support Production – called reverse asymmetry. The
cable business is strongly
rooted in the old model of one to many distribution to
passive consumers. All very
McLuhanesque. The cable companies' best customer is the
sports fan sitting at home on his couch. Bush works this particular
demographic very well
and makes them feel important and empowered.
The Production Line
I see every challenge as a design study.
Sure, studies rarely lead anywhere, but neither does most thought and commentary.
Of the
few
examples of progress, none is built without being designed. If there's
a challenge worth taking on, you have 4 choices:
- Ignore it or complain about it (human default A)
- Wade into it, swinging, without considering the causes
(human default B)
- Fix it based on a practical, tightly-reasoned, broadly
acceptable plan
- If no such plan exists, design one
In today's world, there are three ways to reach consensus
to effect change:
- Web Application.
- Web Application.
- Web Application.
A web app is to 21st century progress as Location is to real
estate. A web application is the only conceivable way of getting we the producers
to stop squabbling and express our real preferences and unleash our energies.
We can't count on government, which seems to have devolved
into a partisan pit of paralyzed pedantry, focused on neoconservative initiatives
and progressive reactions. But, if the government were to suddenly transform
itself into a citizen-centric governance model, how would that model be expressed?
Through a series of web apps, whether for citizen input or IRS forms.
The Dean Web Application
Let's reset our perceptions about the American political process:
The Howard Dean phenomenon isn't
a campaign, it's a web app.
The Tipping Point
The Dean
For America web app (blog, contribution link, funding report, blogroll)
is the primary entry point for knowledge about the candidate. Through
links to its related Dean Meetup web app, the campaign web app has
attracted some 45,000 citizens to ubiquitous political meetings that
are unprecedented at this point in a pre-primary roll out. Those people,
the most Internet-connected progressives, were then moved to participate
in a related web app called the MoveOn Primary. By attracting so many
of the most-connected progressives to its candidate, the Dean web app
was able to win the MoveOn primary in a landslide.
The campaign appears
to be on a ride even it can't comprehend. As of a week ago, Sunday
morning, 6/22, the campaign had raised $3.2
million in the previous 84 days. By tonight–8 days–it will
have doubled that amount. At 2:47 am this morning, $2 million of the
$2.8 raised had came through the Internet. Let's be clear: the campaign
is now past the fund raising stage, it's in the fund receiving business.
In a week, we'll see that this is a phenomenon feeding on itself like
any other viral phenomenon. |
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For the last 20 months, our government
has not allowed us to make a difference. On 9/12/01, most Americans woke
up yearning to contribute. We donated blood but the blood banks ran out of
room before most of us could contribute.
We tried to drive to New York to help pick through the rubble, but were turned
back at the bridges and tunnels. Instead, we got an ad from our president
encouraging us to be loyal consumers and get on airplanes and fly anywhere
but to New York! "Keep moving folks, there's nothing to see here. We
don't need your help."
If my premise is correct, this snub will be looked back on
as one of the great political blunders in history. If it is revealed as a
blunder,
it will be because one candidate with enough common sense, charisma and speaking
ability set up a web application and a related web log that linked to the
web logs of people who still had not been permitted to make a difference.
The 44th president of the United States will be elected by
a bottom-up, citizen-led production. That president will, literally, be owned
by citizens, whose resources trump companies. If we put ourselves in the
place of that 44th president, what kind of government will we fashion?
Probably a web app.
6:52:13 PM 
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