Wikilegislation
By Peter LloydIt is impossible to ignore the innovation implications of the election of Barack Obama—a black man with a name that sounds like the West's worst enemy—as President of the United States.
Only the election of Nelson Mandela—a black man and former prisoner of his white-dominated country—as President of South Africa is possibly more earth-shaking.
More precisely, these transformational events speak to the emerging topics of crowdsourcing and network-centric innovation. If only because they both were driven by such impressive voter turnouts
Satish Nambisan, co-author of The Global Brain, would agree with me, I hope, that a more participatory democracy is not unlike more network-centric innovation.
In his recent interview with Vern Burkhardt, "The How-Tos of Collaborative Innovation," Satish explains how network-centric innovation can apply to federal, state and local levels of government.
His article "Transforming Government Through Collaborative Innovation," tells us how "government, like the private sector, is now beginning to tap into and deploy the resources of organizations and individuals in other sectors to develop and create innovations, such as new ways to deliver public services."
In the Burkhardt interview, Nambisan, reports how the Toronto Transit Commission, for example, welcomes innovative ideas and solutions from the people who ride the system.
The US Declaration of Independence took time to explain the principle that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed." How then is greater participation not a more robust representation of democracy?
Students of innovation and creativity understand that giving up centralized control yields the better fruit of collective genius rather than conventional wisdom. It strikes me as ironic that the independence of a people corresponds directly to the interdependence of its members.
In Vern Burkhardt's interview, "The Canary in the Coal Mine," Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing, wonders why the United States doesn't make better use of its collective brain power in the legislative process.
"There’s no reason to draft legislation and hold a public comment and hearing process, which is generally what agencies do now, if you could be drafting this legislation by Wiki."
Wikilegislation? No Wikipedia entry yet, but imagine education legislation as a collaboration of people from teacher’s unions, students, professors, children’s advocacy groups, parents, and other interested parties.
I can still remember folks scoffing at the idea of Wikipedia. How can the public possible create an encyclopedia?
If we had lived at the end of the 18th century, I'm sure we would have heard the skeptics snickering, "How can a government subject itself to the consent of the governed?"
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.