While most of this blog is dedicated to my kids when they get older, this post is more general. Even as recently as 1912 the concepts of government were rather static. Someone in the capital represents the people and makes decisions for them based on information learned word of mouth or by written letter. It was common yet non-the-less fairly expensive for the leader to communicate a consistent message to all the people. (For example, the royal decree.) It was even more challenging for the people to visit the leader, since an entire population cannot live within walking distance of their topmost leader and even if they did live so close they would likely only be allowed to visit by appointment, when the leader happens to be in town (especially in the case of leaders like Xerxes where showing up unannounced meant death.)
The maximum scope of accountability in the old paradigm meant government only officially met in an open forum where visitors (or perhaps the press) were allowed, or an accurate list of meeting minutes were provided afterwards. Then anyone who desired could go way out of their way to see what their leaders were up to. But typically accountability took another form, the form of "does my leader keep his people propserous (by whatever definition the locals want to use) and does he seem to be an honest person?" Without methods of mass communication what more could you do?
All this was consistent from the time of Adam up until the fifteen century. Then around 1439 Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, revolutionizing and exploding the power of the written word forever. (Paper as we know it today was actually invented in 200 AD in China, and about a millenia later the first mill was built in Europe.) In the later half of the 1800's the typewriter was developed and refined by many people, further empowering the world of text. In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the first electric telegraph, thereby allowing words to be spread across great distances without paper or person. In 1876, Allexander Graham Bell was awarded the patent for the telephone, around 1900 the first radios were being built, and televisions became relatively common in the 1930's in the USA & Europe. While the concept of the computer evolved over time, the first microprocessor was released around 1970 and the backbone of the Internet was laid in the 60's and 70's. Hypertext transfer protocol was a significant milestone in Internet adoption and was created by Tim Berners-Lee, which also signified the birth of the World Wide Wed in 1991. About 10-15 years later the more interactive concepts of Web 2.0 became common.
In the 1930s and 1940s, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave what he called Fireside Chats. In these the president spoke directly to the nation through radio. Television was employed heavily by President John F. Kennedy, arguably most memorably with his 1961 challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon within a decade. By now most Americans know that whitehouse.gov exists and that, if we wanted to, we could see what the president is saying any time we want. However most of us do not have time to randomly go there and watch videos of speech recordings. Thomas.gov provides a good resource on bills, if you need some heavy reading to help put you to sleep at night. Congress.org (not an official government website) provides a great summary of who our officials are, how they voted and on what, but lacks one important detail: why.
At work I have a few mantras and one of them is "transparency, accountability, and accuracy." Now that we live in a connected world of instant messaging, emailing, and blogging (intentionally leaving out names of specific websites) the functional concept of what democracy means and even what a republic means has opportunity to change. I am not talking about re-writing the dictionary, but adapting the concepts to fit the times. In the year 12 AD, it made sense that the Roman government claimed accountability and limited transparency based on word of mouth and some written communications. In 1972 it made sense for the USA government to have a republic that claimed accountability and limited transparency based on word of mouth and written communications, live TV and radio broadcasts, and two way telephone calls. In 2012 perhaps it is time that we embrace the next evolution in transparency and accountability.
Many of us have used (if not bought from) Amazon.com, Walmart.com, iTunes, or some other Internet based store, and seen (if not read) the product reviews and ratings at the bottom of each page. We know it is possible to have your voice heard no matter who you are or where you live or how much money you make, your review on Amazon.com can influence the purchase of thousands of people. Imagine the power of being able to politically vote online. That would take democracy to the next level. This would address the "transparency." Archiving all votes for many years and allowing voters to review their history would address the "accountability." Count how many times you hear the word "recount" next time there is an election. Yeah right. Moving to an online voting system would address the "accuracy." Now I know the natural next question is, who is going to manage this database and ensure it is being used properly? (If the people in power do not fear God then it does not matter if you have a democracy or a dictatorship or communism, the leadership is going to be corrupt and you are doomed to opression.) So if we cannot agree on who would manage the database then I guess the answer is no, we are not ready for this evolution. But perhaps there is one change we can still make that would still change everything.
In a republic the people decide who will represent them, rather than voting directly. Remember how in the year 12, the Roman representatives had word of mouth, papyrus, and stone tablets to document for the citizens how they had used their power. Scribes and writing substances were expensive so use was limited, and you only have so much time to talk in the day and only meet so many people in a year so word of mouth for most citizens was less about hearing directly from the representative as it was hearing third (or three hundredth) hand (and hopefully we all know how well the childs game of "telephone" works.) But now it is the year 2012. The important detail is not that it is two millenia later, that is irrelevant because people have not really changed. But in the last 50 years our world has, and we now have the ability to document anything for virtually no cost. Voting is only one piece of what we elect people for, but it is the most significant place where the "rubber meets the road." What if the government adopted a database that kept track of how every elected official votes on every official vote? What if every representative was also given the ability to explain their every vote? What if every citizen was also given the ability to browse the bills, votes, and explanations? Not only browse but search, sort, filter, and compare? This would be the unification of the governmental concept of a republic and the communication power of web 2.0 and could change the world as we know it by providing unprecedented transparency and accountability. At the very least it would make the election season more objective.
Wouldn't that be cool?
The maximum scope of accountability in the old paradigm meant government only officially met in an open forum where visitors (or perhaps the press) were allowed, or an accurate list of meeting minutes were provided afterwards. Then anyone who desired could go way out of their way to see what their leaders were up to. But typically accountability took another form, the form of "does my leader keep his people propserous (by whatever definition the locals want to use) and does he seem to be an honest person?" Without methods of mass communication what more could you do?
All this was consistent from the time of Adam up until the fifteen century. Then around 1439 Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, revolutionizing and exploding the power of the written word forever. (Paper as we know it today was actually invented in 200 AD in China, and about a millenia later the first mill was built in Europe.) In the later half of the 1800's the typewriter was developed and refined by many people, further empowering the world of text. In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the first electric telegraph, thereby allowing words to be spread across great distances without paper or person. In 1876, Allexander Graham Bell was awarded the patent for the telephone, around 1900 the first radios were being built, and televisions became relatively common in the 1930's in the USA & Europe. While the concept of the computer evolved over time, the first microprocessor was released around 1970 and the backbone of the Internet was laid in the 60's and 70's. Hypertext transfer protocol was a significant milestone in Internet adoption and was created by Tim Berners-Lee, which also signified the birth of the World Wide Wed in 1991. About 10-15 years later the more interactive concepts of Web 2.0 became common.
In the 1930s and 1940s, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave what he called Fireside Chats. In these the president spoke directly to the nation through radio. Television was employed heavily by President John F. Kennedy, arguably most memorably with his 1961 challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon within a decade. By now most Americans know that whitehouse.gov exists and that, if we wanted to, we could see what the president is saying any time we want. However most of us do not have time to randomly go there and watch videos of speech recordings. Thomas.gov provides a good resource on bills, if you need some heavy reading to help put you to sleep at night. Congress.org (not an official government website) provides a great summary of who our officials are, how they voted and on what, but lacks one important detail: why.
At work I have a few mantras and one of them is "transparency, accountability, and accuracy." Now that we live in a connected world of instant messaging, emailing, and blogging (intentionally leaving out names of specific websites) the functional concept of what democracy means and even what a republic means has opportunity to change. I am not talking about re-writing the dictionary, but adapting the concepts to fit the times. In the year 12 AD, it made sense that the Roman government claimed accountability and limited transparency based on word of mouth and some written communications. In 1972 it made sense for the USA government to have a republic that claimed accountability and limited transparency based on word of mouth and written communications, live TV and radio broadcasts, and two way telephone calls. In 2012 perhaps it is time that we embrace the next evolution in transparency and accountability.
Many of us have used (if not bought from) Amazon.com, Walmart.com, iTunes, or some other Internet based store, and seen (if not read) the product reviews and ratings at the bottom of each page. We know it is possible to have your voice heard no matter who you are or where you live or how much money you make, your review on Amazon.com can influence the purchase of thousands of people. Imagine the power of being able to politically vote online. That would take democracy to the next level. This would address the "transparency." Archiving all votes for many years and allowing voters to review their history would address the "accountability." Count how many times you hear the word "recount" next time there is an election. Yeah right. Moving to an online voting system would address the "accuracy." Now I know the natural next question is, who is going to manage this database and ensure it is being used properly? (If the people in power do not fear God then it does not matter if you have a democracy or a dictatorship or communism, the leadership is going to be corrupt and you are doomed to opression.) So if we cannot agree on who would manage the database then I guess the answer is no, we are not ready for this evolution. But perhaps there is one change we can still make that would still change everything.
In a republic the people decide who will represent them, rather than voting directly. Remember how in the year 12, the Roman representatives had word of mouth, papyrus, and stone tablets to document for the citizens how they had used their power. Scribes and writing substances were expensive so use was limited, and you only have so much time to talk in the day and only meet so many people in a year so word of mouth for most citizens was less about hearing directly from the representative as it was hearing third (or three hundredth) hand (and hopefully we all know how well the childs game of "telephone" works.) But now it is the year 2012. The important detail is not that it is two millenia later, that is irrelevant because people have not really changed. But in the last 50 years our world has, and we now have the ability to document anything for virtually no cost. Voting is only one piece of what we elect people for, but it is the most significant place where the "rubber meets the road." What if the government adopted a database that kept track of how every elected official votes on every official vote? What if every representative was also given the ability to explain their every vote? What if every citizen was also given the ability to browse the bills, votes, and explanations? Not only browse but search, sort, filter, and compare? This would be the unification of the governmental concept of a republic and the communication power of web 2.0 and could change the world as we know it by providing unprecedented transparency and accountability. At the very least it would make the election season more objective.
Wouldn't that be cool?