Gov 2.0 and Salsa

06:15 PM Apr 17, 2011

By David Wolpe, BrightText CEO, who will be leading a Salsa Market Webinar on Effective Action forms on Tuesday, April 19. RSVP here

Marlon Brando, it is said, agreed to play the lead role in "The Godfather" only after he saw that the godfather stood in for corporate America. This was in the 70's -- a time in which, in comparison to now, corporate influence was still in diapers. They can now  buy whatever they like in our political system, from endless TV ads, to the politicians and judges themselves -- just like the Godfather did.

In times like these, the voice of a single citizen seems to shrink. And yet it is the engaged citizen, not the corporate consumer (and certainly not the corporation) who we need to stand up now more than ever.

So how do we increase civic engagement?

Exhorting people to 'do more' is one way to go about it, but it's a tough sell. As any parent who has tried to get a kid to clean up his room will tell you, it ain't easy. Aldous Huxley once famously remarked that it was awfully difficult to get people to change; at the end of the day all you could do was ask them to be a little nicer.

Even the word 'organizing' in the context of taking group action has an outmoded feel to it. Unless we're talking of preaching to the choir -- the 'activist' crowd is already made up of activists --we need new approaches in order to engage users. And in addition to the inherent difficulty, we live in an era of distraction.Your personal computer or hand-held device now is your entertainment center and your Chief Addiction Node. From high school kids who have trouble concentrating, to older adults who feel overwhelmed by technology, we are all buffeted and tossed about in the waves of white noise.

Online advocacy in its current state is in serious trouble. A recent survey of congressional communications staffers indicates that cookie-cutter form letters have a miniscule chance of influencing a congressman. In fact, some government agencies have proposed rules that allow them to ignore comments on form letters, pre-printed postcards, and similar "duplicative" materials. The sender feels disempowered and the recipient is unimpressed.
Clearly social technology can help.  At least, it has the potential to help.


    “I think the longest term [impact] will be how tools like Facebook and the broader Internet affect civic engagement and governance.”

    -- Mark Zuckerberg, March 25, 2011


This is where Gov 2.0 comes in. Broadly speaking, Gov 2.0 is an evolving constellation of efforts:

•     to use web technology for civic action
•     to make government data more open to the public
•     to engage developers to solve problems in innovative ways using the Internet, and to share the created applications across government  entities
•     to offer an alternative to the clumsy, costly, and sometimes corrupt 'procurement' process

Gov 2.0 is driven by economic imperatives as well: U.S. government spending as a Percentage of GDP is steadily rising at an alarming rate.  In one of its more creative incarnations, as described by Tim O'Reilly,  Gov 2.0 is the idea that government might create a platform, just as Apple has created a platform, and let developers create the apps for it. In this way it creates a new relationship between government and the private sector. It requires getting developers excited about civic software -- about thinking in new ways to engage the public. And as we do more ourselves,  we become more active agents in our democracy.

Where does this leave online advocacy? Why does it seem so stale and why so ineffective? What gov 2.0 promises to bring is collective intelligence brought to bear on our problems. But form letters are not collective intelligence; they are at best an expression of collective will and at worst  the subservience of the individual's intelligence to a kind of groupthink.

Have you ever come out of a movie and some time later been asked 'What was the movie about?'  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to reconstruct the story if you're helped by someone else who also saw it? This idea, of collective thinking, of give and take, of reminding and stimulating one another, is what happens in social conversation. What we need is the online technological equivalent: something we might call cloudthought.

Just as two people may collaboratively reconstruct a story, many people may collaboratively compose a message, if given the right tools. This last point is key: it isn't just a matter of  'pass the letter, please, and I'll have a crack at it.' No one wants to do that. Rather, the tools of of gov 2.0 must be created with the highest level of entrepreneurial energy and creativity. Why not have a socially composed message? I may not have either the skill or the time to write the letter itself, but I can contribute a piece to it.

Even if that piece is a phrase, if there were a way to weave that phrase in to a larger whole… if I could contribute a little piece of cloth to a larger quilt… if I could  help to shape a many-sided message by adding just one of its facets… It then becomes something truly created of the community, by the community, and for the community. I am able to make a meaningful contribution and I have that marvelous sense of participating in something bigger than myself, in which others are participating as well.

This does not mean that everyone does the same amount or type of thing. Some will carry more of the load, because they are better suited to it: they enjoy it more. Others will do less. But what is key is that the tool provide the opportunity for participation and fulfillment on the one hand, and for ease and speed on the other.

This is how we will create the socially energized mind.

Join us for a Salsa Market Webinar on Effective Action forms on Tuesday, April 19. RSVP here

David Wolpe is CEO of BrightText, a next-generation technology for advocacy engagement. www.brighttext.com

Add a comment

A Better Link

David — 06:41 PM Apr 20, 2011

Rick,<br />
<br />
The actual PDF is here:<br />
<br />
http://pmpu.org/wp-content/uploads/CWC-Perceptions-of-Citizen-Advocacy.pdf<br />
<br />
-- David

Citations

David — 06:37 PM Apr 20, 2011

Hi Rick,<br />
<br />
Sure. The study is here:<br />
<br />
http://www.cmfweb.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63<br />
<br />
-- David Wolpe

citations needed

org_9577 — 05:19 PM Apr 20, 2011

Hey folks. Can you please cite and/or share the links to wherever it is you got this information:<br />
<br />
"A recent survey of congressional communications staffers indicates that cookie-cutter form letters have a miniscule chance of influencing a congressman. In fact, some government agencies have proposed rules that allow them to ignore comments on form letters, pre-printed postcards, and similar "duplicative" materials."<br />
<br />
Thanks

citations needed

org_9577 — 03:35 PM Apr 20, 2011

Hey folks. Can you please cite and/or share the links to wherever it is you got this information:<br />
<br />
"A recent survey of congressional communications staffers indicates that cookie-cutter form letters have a miniscule chance of influencing a congressman. In fact, some government agencies have proposed rules that allow them to ignore comments on form letters, pre-printed postcards, and similar "duplicative" materials."<br />
<br />
Thanks