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00733: Re: [WDDM] Thoughts about our democracy (and a general ramble)

From: "Pras Anand" <pras_anand(at)hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:15:03 +0100
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Thoughts about our democracy (and a general ramble)

"Have any of you ever seen any other theories on market place operation"

Having just attended a particular highlevel event about this I would say what many of us might know already and say that there are numerous marketplace operations which are aimed at creating a DD. The industry buzzword is e-democracy and if (for example) you search google for e-government and european commission I'm sure you'd find many well placed ideas. These ideas have now flourished into examples all over the world where cities and municipalities have effectively created systems that people can access an everyday democratic decision making vote system which directly affects the government.

In many people's eyes this may not be enough. True much more needs to be done. My conclusion from watching many people present their work, from the lead architect of the zurich e-voting system, to the mayor of San Francisco's IT guy, - the conclusion was twofold, There are many people out their attempting (for however shallow reasons) to say that this is the right way to do it. This will filter through and in time, the good people will rise to the top of a government.

The actual issues that I thought were valuable were that the majority don't really effectively use the internet nevermind directly accessing the functions of a working government. How many people have thought about what would happen if you replaced all the employees of the local council and government with general internet-interested randoms. It would fall apart. If everyone has a say then what would happen if we had an internet democracy? The internet has a load of great content, but let's face it - much of it is sarcastic rubbish. Like people's opinions much of the time are just rubbish.

In the sense that people don't even know what to think often and just say what they read, heard or saw on the television. Why would replacing existing governments with people from the general public actually be a good thing?

The other, and really crucial, point is this: People are bastards. People are also great. The majority of people are pretty open minded and nice individuals. These are the people we should have in our governmental system. Democracy, voting, digital divide etc doesn't mean anything if the people in charge of it are not nice people. Today there was a guy who was talking on the stage about how young people should be involved in the process of policy design. A notion I fully support. But the same guy didn't even acknowledge me when I said hello to him - this was probably 2 out of about 100 people i said hello to. The point is - this is a fraud. A crook.

These are the people in government that cause the problems. They might be the majority at this time. But if we keep forwarding positive notions of a governmental system (I mean the governmental industry, not political activists) then different people will start to rise to the top of the governmental bodies that we so love to hate. They can be transformed into more effective, efficient organisations that are more focussed on improving the quality of life.

Look, I've just spent time in a top level conference with leaders from around the world - from FBI to IBM - Mayors and IT counsellors from at least 15 countries around the world. I've sat and watched their presentations and come to the conclusion that none of them were really saying anything new or concrete. There were around 60 speakers that I saw and probably about 10 of them were superb presentations of quality change in our society towards political constructs that we appreciate and need.

So to close this ramble, I'm just saying that although the older powerbase is a bunch of aristocrat wannabees living off our tax money - it is starting to cite messages of DD. However genuine that is depends on the example, most aren't genuine. Many are though and this is the point that is so pointlessly over-expressed in this text.

People in all communities tend to have similar traits. Liars, arseholes, self-centered subjective people, open adaptive people etc. I realised that even at the top of the chains in ICT and Government - people are just people. If we hate each other then nothing will ever be solved. But many people hate everyone different because of personal issues. IE "That politician didn't do a good job because it affected me personally in a bad way" or "that indian guy took my job, they should go back to their own country".

I'll actually finish with the point that people from all walks of life do this - political activists, ict companies, manufacture, energy, education, media, whatever. So, when you look at an organisation from a political point of view, you discount the identity and individual nature of each member within it. Which is a requirement of DD, for example.

Food for thought? or a bunch of crap. Who cares.. What are we going to do and why? Let's create events to bridge governmental conferences with members of the politically active communities such as this one. Bring people together in these scenarios and really talk about it in front of your audience. Why not make a referendum out of the discussion so that the audience actually makes a participatory decision. This would show people what DD means and serve to illustrate the issues being discussed.

Come on everyone, there are people working together everywhere trying to create a DD. In fact they've gone quite a lot further in conceptual terms. A personal estimate of annual global research funding into this area - >$10Bn. Relatively minor in terms of research funding - but it's enough to show that there is a concrete shift in terms of governmental acceptence that something needs to change. They just don't want to give up their lollipop just yet.

I'll publish some PPT presentations from the Global Forum 2006 when I get them, if anyone wants to see what is going on in the world of e-government development. If any of you are actively creating systems and solutions for the issues at hand, now's the time to really go for it. There is plenty of opportunity for people with positive actions. As for those who like to predict doom and criticise others without adequate knowledge - don't bother reading any of it - you won't believe it anyway.

Pras

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