Anthony J. BradleyAs I had expected (and hoped), President Elect Obama is employing social software to get the people involved in government. They have launched an idea engine to gather the best ideas the public has to offer for presentation to the president, as they say, in a briefing book like he gets from his named advisors. Who determines the best ideas? We do, by voting and adding to the idea.
This is crowdsourcing, wisdom of the crowds, out-of-the-box, law of numbers, thinking applied to government. I will follow it to see how it goes.
Category: social applications Tags: government, social applications
4 responses so far ↓
1 Andrea Di Maio January 15, 2009 at 12:33 am
Do not be mistaken: running for office is different from being in office and bright crowdsourcing ideas do take a different spin. This is a very interesting intiiative indeed, but I do not think anybody in the new administration has put much thought (or shared, if they did) about how this would complement or clash with the established processes of representative democracy. For instance, how can one be sure about the online idea voting process not to be skewed by lobbyists and interest groups? I will soon blog about this.
2 Do Not Get Carried Away By Obama’s Attitude About Social Software January 15, 2009 at 1:12 am
[...] my colleague Anthony Bradley says in his recent post, this is crowdsourcing and out-of-the-box thinking, and certainly worth attention and follow-up. [...]
3 Should We Get Excited About the Obama Administration’s Efforts with Social Software? January 15, 2009 at 11:13 am
[...] Who’s BloggingAnthony BradleyFrench CaldwellLydia LeongAndrew WhiteKathy HarrisJeffrey MannNick JonesJim HolincheckAndrea DiMaioGreg YoungNick GallDavid McCoyDaryl PlummerJim SinurKristin MoyerGartner Blog NetworkDavid M SmithSteve PrenticeMike McGuireDebbie WilsonJeff RosterJohn PescatoreThomas BittmanMark DriverAndrew FrankJim LundyMark McDonaldAllen WeinerToby BellAndreas BittererThomas OtterBrian PrenticeCameron HaightMichael MaozOffice of the OmbudsmanWhit AndrewsTom AustinDan ShollerMastering The Hype CycleFrank KenneyGene AlvarezApplication Architecture, Development & IntegrationPortals, Content and CollaborationGene PhiferMark RaskinoVal SribarPat PhelanDavid CearleyNikos DrakosEric GoodnessRay ValdesTom Murphy ← The OBAMA Administration Gets The Social Movement [...]
4 Anthony Bradley January 15, 2009 at 11:18 am
Running for office is surely different than governing but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful in using social approaches with both. Sure it is a different opportunity with different requirements. I don’t think we should assume that because they were successful with campaigning that they won’t be with governing. Conversely, because they have done it successfully once, the chances of them doing it successfully twice are higher.
If this idea engine gets “skewed by lobbyists and interest groups” then it will indeed compliment the existing system
I hope it clashes!