Forget top-down control,
give citizens data and tools and let them self govern.
At a couple of different
events (Shakespeare Review and Innovate 2013)I attended recently
the question of how we can generate economic benefit from opening
up government data was explored. It got me thinking about the
shift to government as a platform Tim O’Reilly and others have been
writing about this for a while, and point the idea is built on a set of
principles that are the exact opposite of the way government traditionally
works. These principles include transparency (open standards and
data); simplicity (build a simple system and let it evolve); participation
(design systems and programmes to be as inclusive as possible) open mindedness
(learn from critics); experimentation (including the embrace of failure as the
way we ultimately learn to succeed); and visibility (track all participation to
be able to learn from data mining about aggregate behaviour). Governments that
are able to adopt and act on these principles are going to be able to mobilise
enormous economic and social power in the service of addressing problems. There
will be governments who are not afraid of their own societies but rather seem to
empower their citizens.
As resources for government
as a vending machine fall and the speed of change makes government as control
tower ever more difficult, government as platform will become ever more
attractive. It is the very nature of platforms that it is possible to prescribe
or predict how and where citizens will decide to use their newfound powers of
participation and innovation.
In my world I’m beginning
to see this come to fruition with an appetite for platforms such as the
Government G cloud and interest in how the business application stores like
AppWave can tap into the social
elements of work.
