“Open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of the American citizenry to help government make more informed decisions.” Create a Transparent and Connected Democracy -- Barack ObamaObama’s innovation and tech agenda enables a new kind of surge – the surge of the social creativity and collective intelligence needed to solve our toughest problems, and move the US in the world from being part of the problem to being part of the solution.As another bloger noted, “The Plan calls for citizen engagement in the work of federal agencies and demonstrates respect for the intelligence and expertise of the American people.” I would add:“Yes, we can” because Yes, we know and care!
Together, we know how to meet our society’s most wicked challenges and greatest opportunities, but only if we connect our conversations to get wiser together. Do we care enough to learn what it takes to make it so?
“Barack Obama’s technology plan is unique because it focuses first and foremost on empowering people to connect with each other and with government to solve problem.” -- William E. Kennard, Past Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
Connecting with one another around questions that matter, action-inquiries that make a difference on the ground, in the neighborhood and the office, the classroom and shop floor, in small towns and our great cities, everywhere where people are tired of the same old, same old -- is a winning practice. It makes us smarter together. We need it for further juicing up the 50-state strategy, to generate local results that inspire and attract, and to deliver the White House to the Democratic Party.
Social media such as this one, plus wikis combined with tagging and semantic web tools, will provide the technical conditions for amplifying our collective capacity to solve problems. The real potential of those tools is that they allow us to grow the community knowledge ecosystems needed to match the complexity of large-scale social problem-solving and innovation. With Obama in the Oval Office, we will also have the political will to use those tools in the most empowering ways.
What will become possible then? What is possible and most needed, now?
What will be some of the wise questions to ask from ourselves now, that if answered, could truly demonstrate the unparalleled power of connected clusters and networks of social innovators?Here is one:
How can we keep the momentum for President Obama growing and Growing and GROWING, by meeting the challenge (and opportunity!) to engage millions of Americans in all 50 states in distributed cognition, shared learning, collaborative problem solving and co-presencing a better future?
What is your question?
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