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commented on Social innovation to promote active ageing over 3 years ago.

Forbes on Leadership said: Forbes on Leadership A quote from Tony Blair: \'The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.\" When our politicians are wooing our votes by promising everything it\'s important to note what true leaders are made of.

commented on One Machine to rule them alll over 3 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: Well...my vote goes to "laugh", however, I might add the word "nervous" in front of it...there's no way that devices attached to The Machine are equivalent to dumb terminals. The fact that whatever you do on them (their underlying functions) can increasingly be controlled or modified by someone other than you, means they are far more than mere viewers into the Machine's world; the Machine then actually controls their function, purpose and evolution (not to mention what you...

commented on One Machine to rule them alll over 3 years ago.

Public Strategist said: Being lashed together is not the same as being One Machine. In a very Wired way, there's something very powerful lost in some oversimplification here. A simple example: my phone has 4Gb of storage. That's the best part of 4Gb more than my last phone had and has some very positive consequences, mainly to with the fact that I now generally don't bother to tote a separate MP3 player around with me. That's fine for me, but I am not sure that there is any meaningful se...

commented on I am a Civil Servant over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It's all evidence of the "making it up as we go along" syndrome that much of the collision between Web 2.0 and the public sector is generating. What these guidelines suggest to me is the larger issue that looms behind them, which is how public servants should engage in the more conversational aspects of the public policy process. This is a probem off-line, whihc is why it's a challange online. How should public servants engage with the outside world other than i...

commented on I am a Civil Servant over 3 years ago.

Lynda Kelly said: Hi Paul - I heard about these yesterday at a discussion group I went to with Martin, et al. I did find them quite useful actually. As a Museum blogger sometimes I really do have to remind myself that I do represent my organisation and stop and think before I post things to either my blog or our various Facebook pages and YouTube channel. The Powerhouse Museum has a set of principles for blogs and we had a bit of a discussion about them here. They are also a bit better than t...

commented on Ministerially-led, customer-driven Government Departments over 3 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: Is this sloganeering (and clearly, sometimes a slogan is just a slogan) or is there a new accountability regime being implemented? Is Ian trying to send a message to his Minister and perhaps others? He's a smart guy and this seems somewhat trite on the surface, so what game is afoot? At a time when many Public Service entities are struggling to attract and retain new or experienced hires, is this a message that positively resonates with prospective employees, let alone ...

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: And of course history is replete with examples of people who have used the power from the barrel of the gun to repress and others to liberate. As Mario says, this is not a question that is susceptible to a simplistic "technology is good" versus "technology is bad" response. I think Mario's basic point, though, is spot on. The real debate here should not be about the cool and groovy things you can do with technology, and the ways in which those capabilities can be...

commented on Social innovation to promote active ageing over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Is part of the problem that the embrace of a "major cultural shift" which Diogo rightly identifies as central to the uptake of social innovation by mainstream policy processes requires considerable shifts in power, authoirity and accountability? Do you think it is right that to become not just tolerant of social innovation, but positively to embrace its ethic and practices, mainstream policy processes have to entertain the notion that they may end up having less po...

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Mario said: How does Government 2.0 relate to repression, not to say arrest of dissenters, by the Chinese police? Much of their surveillance and their attempts to curtail the free flow of information is enabled with Cisco gear. Several arrests, not to mention the complete disappearance of critics, has come precisely from technology enabling exchange of information on public blogs and chat rooms (often monitored and even participated in by police) Not to pick on Cisco however, but how does t...

commented on The bees and the trees: Geoff Mulgan’s ten thesis on social innovation over 3 years ago.

Web 2.0 and Government transformation « Knowledge Futures said: [...] has been on social innovation with posts on the Social Innovation International Congress including this good post on Geoff Mulgan’s 10 theses for social innovation. I particularly like his #4 and #5 which [...]

commented on Social innovation to promote active ageing over 3 years ago.

Diogo Vasconcelos said: I don't see Social Innovation as a mainstream priority for policy makers. For instance, the current energy crisis is a great opportunity to innovate.However, this has not yet been take seriously by public sector leaders. Most of them still have a "command and control" mindset. Social Innovation requires a major cultural shift that implies new skills and new attitude. It requires a public sector in an intense pro-activity, sensing and stimulating the citizens to play...

commented on Social innovation to promote active ageing over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: The big challange is not so much to nurture social innovation, although that is clearly a compelling challenge. Just as important will be the way we weave the results of social innovation into the larger fabric of public policy. Right now, I sense that mainstream policy makers, while they are more or less committed to the idea of social innovation, have few ideas about how to deal with its outcomes. So, for the most part, we have a 'business as usual' policy pr...

commented on OneWorld: web 2.0 to promote sustainability over 3 years ago.

aditya said: I think web 2.0 being an interactive platform will be very effective in achieving our sustainability goals. Our corporate blog (mahindrauniverse.com) is one of our initiatives to discuss related issues. I would like to get your views on it.

commented on The bees and the trees: Geoff Mulgan’s ten thesis on social innovation over 3 years ago.

alex said: What do thought leaders achieve ? Has this person saved a life, or invented a product that does anything ? Is it enough to work in No. 10 ? Does the speaker think they have changed people's lives in the same way as a teacher ? If you as a class of kids, do you want to be a thought leader, would they think yes ?

commented on Clever, kind and connected - the new politics over 3 years ago.

John Connell said: As you say, Martin, what a good slogan. We could do with a slice of Bartlett and Giddings in the UK at the moment, I believe, where the average senior politician seems to survive on an ethic of "conniving, vindictive and unhitched"!

commented on Look what God has wrought - the rise and rise of government blogging over 3 years ago.

More on the US Military’s Online Communications Strategy : Tree of Knowledge said: [...] A growing number of US government agencies are realising that pretty basic first step for influencing new media is creating your own online voice. The EPA, State and the Department of Homeland Security among at least 30 US government blogs that have started in the last 12 months with varying degrees of success (discussed recently at connectedrepublic). [...]

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Seven Features of Government 2.0 : Tree of Knowledge said: [...] currently a wiki-discussion going on at Connected Republic trying to synthesise the broad principles of Government 2.0/Open Source Government/Wiki-government [...]

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Mike Kuajwski said: Thanks for starting this up. I work for an organization dedicated to making the public sector more efficient and effective in their marketing/engagement efforts with citizens here in Canada. Effective use and understanding of social media/web 2.0 is an obvious core component of this and main focus of my blog. I will try to contribute regularly. Cheers! MK

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Wikinomics in the Blogosphere said: [...] Connected Republic has announced a wiki discussion of Government 2.0, using seven principles that they have developed as a starting point. [...]

commented on Government 2.0 - an adventure in wiki-land over 3 years ago.

Government 2.0 - only connect… : Open to persuasion… said: [...] Johnston and the Connected Republic team have been thinking deeply about this, and today published Seven Principles of Government 2.0 that articulate their sense of the ways in which things may be [...]

commented on Sharing and Stimulating Public Sector Innovation over 3 years ago.

Paul Johnston said: I like the Kent examples particularly the second one that shows some interesting applications of different tools. These examples do show the power of video for communicating and it would also be interesting to promote comments and discussions round the videos. Another example of the public sector using the web in an interesting way to showcase innovation is http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/fco-in-action/map; again, however, it would be interesting if they linked that out in sugges...

commented on Sharing and Stimulating Public Sector Innovation over 3 years ago.

Innovation said: A few examples here... http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/priorities-policies-and-plans/priorities-and-plans/kent-year-innovation/innovation-films.htm and here... http://www.kenttv.com/programmes.php?PID=96&Title=Change+Through+Innovation

commented on Australia 2020 over 3 years ago.

Dan Hill said: Agreed, Martin. Although the actions that emanate from the ideas are really the most important aspect, the use of basic contemporary tools as you suggest would actually help that translation point from ideas-forming to policy-forming and beyond. Our tools today enable translation, knowledge transfer, filtering, contextualisation, presentation etc., like no others have. However, it was great to have ideas back on the agenda again in the first place. Totally welcome. Shame that ...

commented on Australia 2020 over 3 years ago.

Kerry Webb said: I think the unknown blogger is a little hopeful about the Best and Brightest being able to use a wiki. My experience is that very few experienced Web users have such skills. And that's not what they were there to do.

commented on Quick reality check: are we kidding ourselves? over 3 years ago.

Public Strategy said: How far away is the new world? Martin Stewart Weeks has a question. For the most part, government is not being done in recognizably different ways and certainly not ways that, in any reasonable interpretation of the word, would count as ‘transformation’ . Underlying structures a...

commented on Australia 2020 over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Here's a view from one blogger whose critique is largely driven by the sense that Australia 2020 was all a bit "World 1.0"... I miss something from the coverage of the 2020 conference? I saw people with pens and paper. I saw no evidence of an internal wiki (or something similar) being used. It seems they are using 1020 technology to manage the output of our best and brightest. I hope I’m wrong, and that someone will point out my error. If the government couldn...

commented on Transforming Local Government over 3 years ago.

Public Strategist said: It's both. But it's both in a way which doesn't, on the whole, fit into the current model of local democracy. I don't want to contact my council about the fact that they haven't collected my rubbish, because that should just happen, in the same way which lots of other services provided by lots of other organisations just happen. And partly because of that, I don't think there is any particular value from having democratic control of rubbish collection. Some ser...

commented on Transforming Local Government over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Are we labouring under the weight of an unresolved contradiction here? On the one hand, we're saying a good relationship with government is no relationship at all, or at least one that is so minimal and so stripped down to simple, generic and non-differentiated process that it all happens so that we barely notice. On the other hand, we urge governments to understand the needs, preferences and values of their citizens in order to be able to fashion programs and s...

commented on Transforming Local Government over 3 years ago.

Public Strategy said: Making government more invisible People in government often like to think that government is important, failing to realise that they are seeing it from a rather unusual point of view. For most people, most of the time, government is most successful when it is least visible, or perhap...

commented on Goodbye to Consumerism, hello to Produsage? over 3 years ago.

Robert Searle said: The idea of collaboration using computers is a fine thing, and should always be encouraged. However, the real problem lies with knowledge overload. It would be nice to see a collaboration in which descriptions, and notably in this case arguments/debates pro, and con against any issue (eg.social, economic, and political ones) could be developed. This would be presented, and edited in a listed "note-form" rather than large chunks of writings. Moreover, the data presente...

commented on eFestival of Ideas over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: I'm less sanguine about the resilience of the instiutions of public policy in the face of increasingly restless and effective citizens. Not all of them, true and still in many ways something of a niche group, but the impact remains as potentially corrosive of the foundations of control and authority on which instutions are built even though the assult is being launched by a relatively small group of people. But Terry's timely realism is an important anti-dote to a...

commented on eFestival of Ideas over 3 years ago.

Paul Johnston said: I tend to agree with Terry (and sadly even got his obscure Reggie Perrin reference). I think there are huge opportunities for citizen empowerment and that some citizens are to some extent much more empowered than they use to be, but I do not think that we are all hyper-empowered now. I have plenty of views of issues from Uk foreign policy to our ant-terrorist laws to how well the road was repaired outside my house one month ago, but I do not have much sense that central or...

commented on eFestival of Ideas over 3 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: To paraphrase another poster over at vibewire, I agree with this completely and I disagree with it completely. There's no doubt in the broadly Western context that the individual is more empowered, at least from a depth and breadth of informed choice point-of-view. Equally Martin, I agree that tension, spurred on by technology, exists and is growing between and across stakeholders. However, "the chaos of unconstrained and unconstrainable conversational hyperempowerment" ...

commented on eFestival of Ideas over 3 years ago.

Ewan McIntosh said: You may find the quotes in this post of use in your arguments on the 'fad' of the net: http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2008/04/the-net-its-all.html

commented on Quick reality check (contd) - some wise counsel over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It's a pleasure - Desigining for Civil Society is one of my 'favourites' and an RSS regular. The other quotes are from David Weinberger's book of the same name "Small Pieces, Loosely Joined". I think Tom Watson is right, by the way. For the most part, governments are much better off going to where poeple are already having lively and meaningful conversations, and learning how to listen to them properly, than expecting them to join often dull and unimaginative s...

commented on Quick reality check (contd) - some wise counsel over 3 years ago.

David Wilcox said: Martin - thanks so much for the mention. Here's the link in case people want to see the source. http://tinyurl.com/32y86b. I was counterpointing Tom's approach with that of the "big conversation" favoured by OurKingdom ... and asking: If we talk, will Government listen? By the way, what were the sources for the quotes in the other reality checks? I know I've published the Stephen Coleman quote, but I wondered about the other. In terms of what might work, it is interesting ...

commented on Quick reality check: are we kidding ourselves? over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Agree that politicians in some situations have embraced the choice model, coupled with a subsidiarity rhetoric that I sometimes wonder if they really understand, on a pretty flimsy pretext and without much consideration. But I'm less inclined to throw out the choice stuff, if it's done properly. And doing it properly is at least partly about the way you set up the game. I think the disconnect between the stats on engagement in formal politics and active and gro...

commented on Quick reality check: are we kidding ourselves? over 3 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: Funny thing Martin, as I was about to blog on something very much aligned to this subject...it was in fact, going to be based on a story you'd sent me recently. The former British health secretary, Alan Milburn, wrote an op-ed in The Australian entitled, "Power to the People" http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23411791-26040,00.html In it, he makes points that some would consider axiomatic, such as, "Today politics is struggling to come to terms with grea...

commented on Safe to Play over 3 years ago.

Steve Pollock said: So I would love to read the whitepaper. However, this site has lost my username, and the site where the whitepaper is hosted is asking for yet another login. Enough is enough, that's an invasion of my privacy! Good thing I use Google, heck there all I have to do is log in once and they make everything easy ;-) -Steve

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Very nicely put - you've nailed a really important issue here, which the gap between the sensibilities and instincts of the 'net' generation (as a crude shorthand for those who 'get it') and the sensibilities and instincts of those inside the public policy process. One of the biggest issues is around representativeness. In the real world, we all know that coming across really great insights and fabulous ideas is not about representativeness. It's about being open...

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

web 2. 0 in e-participation: mass collaboration in decision-making? « Benchmarking e-gov in web 2.0 said: [...] Johnston of “The Connected Republic” says here:“it is also clearly wrong to think that any conversation however brilliantly managed is going [...]

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

osimod said: What I really liked about the netwokringdemocracy post is that it spells out the gap between government and web 2 people. In particular, the 2 questions posed by the ministers are very frequently posed by decision-makers: - how to make sense of large numbers of web contributions (if they occur) ? - how to ensure both that there is a good input and that it is fairly representative and is secure from ‘capture’? I have not thought it over but I feel great distance from these questio...

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: The point of a conversation, presumably, is that you start it often not knowing where it is going to lead or whether indeed it has any purpose. Do we have an appetite for that kind of engagement with and between people in the policy process? Maybe part of our challange is to learn that sometimes the best way to encourage people to become 'engaged' and to 'participate' is to invite them into settings where the conversation has an intrinsic, not an instrumental value...

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

Anthony Barnett said: T<hank you for this sane and clear account. We'd like to include it in our final aggregation of the responses. Anthony

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

alex said: There is a tool called debatemapper that might help here. This page has points for and against ID cards http://www.debatemapper.com/MapView.aspx

commented on Networking Democracy - Can National Conversations Work? over 3 years ago.

Podnosh Blog : High Fibre Podcasting » Archive » Does government have ears enough? said: [...] mean for how government should make best use of the web? Paul Johnston from Cisco writes at the Connected Republic blog about the Our Kingdom project from OpenDemocracy: For example, I would be in favour of a mixed [...]

commented on Perils of modernity over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: And just to tail off the whole story, talk about 'from the horses mouth'! Here, in a short piece from AFP, Malaysian PM Badawi provides possible the most powerful possible endorsement of the power of the revolution that almost cost him government... Thanks to my colleague James Yong for drawing this to my attention... "Agence France-Presse Posted date: March 25, 2008 KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysia's premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Tuesday his "biggest mistake" i...

commented on Yes, but what about accountability? over 3 years ago.

David Weinberger said: Brilliant. I think the lesson of the Net is not that accountability is bad but that it needs to be more supple, more accountable (so to speak) to the goals it's trying to achieve and the organizational structure that can best achieve those goals. Systems do tend to grow static, at which point accountability can get mixed up with other social aims that may not advance the actual agenda, namely, accountability gets mixed up with power for its own sake. As you point ou...

commented on Perils of modernity over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It gets more interesting...this piece suggests that the blogosphere has infiltrated the heart of the democratic process (the parliament), which should make for some interesting times ahead in Malaysian politics: Here's a short report from the India press: "Malaysia’s political landscape was hit hard from cyberspace last week when a blogger entered Parliament after winning in elections that saw the ruling coalition lose its two-thirds majority in the House. In a c...

commented on Yes, but what about accountability? over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It's a useful question to ask why we need accountablity and what it is supposed to achieve. I suspect much of the accountability scaffolding with which public policy is encumbered has lost sight of the reasons it was erected in the first place. A bit of 'zero-based budgeting' aimed at a fundamental review of acountability structures wouldn't go astray. But your point, David, is an important one. What is accountability meant to achieve? I think in the public pol...

commented on Yes, but what about accountability? over 3 years ago.

David Weinberger said: Martin, great point. But why exactly do the public policy/management types want accountability? Because that's the way the world has always worked? Because it is a moral requirement? Or for pragmatic reasons? I ask because one could argue -- in fact, I would argue -- that much of the amazing progress we've made in the new connected world has been due to a relaxing of the requirement that participants be accountable. There's a huge cost to making systems highly account...

commented on Content through Collaboration over 3 years ago.

baldev singh said: Hi MIchelle, Thanks for sharing your thoughts and helped me shape my presentation (very timey :-)). Very interesting as I am sitting in a conference in Sophia Bulgaria where the debate is around curriculum reform and assessment. Tools of collaboration is what teachers are aware of but there is (as in many countries) a disconect from people at the MOE who plan the curriculum. Again making the right choices when using technology in education is a key queston for this confe...

commented on Perils of modernity over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart Weeks said: This is what my friend and Cisco colleague James Yong remarked in his brief response to my comments on this article (James is a Malaysian who has lived in Singapore for a long time and the author of one of the best books on eGovernment in Asia): James' response: "I tend to agree with Martin's view. As a Malaysian (even though I haven't lived in Malaysia for some time) I remain very interested in the politics. I followed the campaigning process through Malaysiakini...

commented on PMA 44 - A Challenge and an Opportunity over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Steve has hit it right on the head - a growing proportion of public policy work is not being done, or at least not being led or predominantly led, by the public sector. Many of the large endeavours on which our societies are embarked - reducing the impact and cost of global warming, lifting literacy, eradicating poverty, renewing the value and impact of public education and so on - are going to be dealt with by the decisions, expertise and resources of people and o...

commented on Reflections on India over 3 years ago.

baldev singh said: Enjoyed reading your comments and brought back some good memories of my days as a student in the city of Chandigarh in norther India. India is like a drug: When you are on it you want to get off and when you are off it you want to get back on it! Women empowerment is the way forward for many projects and education and in India (and the rest of the world)

commented on PMA 44 - A Challenge and an Opportunity over 3 years ago.

steve benowitz said: Allan and Fred correctly identify some of the challenges facing public sector entities when recruiting new workers. In addition to the issues they raise, I suggest the need to examine the context and meaning of "public sector," as it has grown substantially in the past ten years to include not-for-profits and NGOs. In fact, many graduate programs in public administration find that over half of their MPA graduates now go to these latter organizations rather than traditio...

commented on PMA 44 - A Challenge and an Opportunity over 3 years ago.

Fred Thompson said: Allowing younger workers to use the networking technologies that they know and use routinely in their private lives is important. I would submit that it is even more important to allow and encourage these young workers unleash their creativity to find ways that they can engage citizens with the work of their agencies using these new social networking tools. Government can be a change agent in building and supporting communities and encouraging their civic engagement. Op...

commented on Opening Up the Debate over 3 years ago.

David Price said: Paul, thanks for the excellent post and for opening up the conversation. I have blogged some first thoughts in response here: http://opentopersuasion.com/2008/03/14/debate-maps-public-policy-openness-and-trust/

commented on Opening Up the Debate over 3 years ago.

Debate Maps, Public Policy, Openness and Trust : Open to persuasion… said: [...] debate maps are not fixed by government-centric frames—a potential concern Martin Stewart-Weeks raises with respect to the templates—but are discovered and defined by the participants in the process [...]

commented on PMA 44 - A Challenge and an Opportunity over 3 years ago.

Allan Holmes said: In reading your comments about the problems in attracting young and talented workers to government, I couldn't help but recall the Washington Monthly article "Finding the Civil Service's Hidden Sex Appeal" (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_11_32/ai_66922112). Although the article was published in 2000, most of its points are still relevant today – that is, young workers don’t leave government because of low pay or uninteresting work; they leave because of an i...

commented on The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Revisited over 3 years ago.

Patrick Spencer said: Concerned Citizen: Thank you for your comments and for the book recommendations. I have not read the two books you recommended and will order them today - I am always on the look out for interesting books. Thanks also for providing the links ... I plan to visit them later today. Cheers. Patrick

commented on The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Revisited over 3 years ago.

concerned citizen said: I would much rather the discourse on Globalization came from economists like Joesph Stiglitz (Nobel winner for economics and was Chief Economist at World Bank), Paul Krugman (Princeton), Pankaj Ghemawat (Harvard)etc. Ted Koppel interviews Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz, who ofcourse doesnt find a mention in Friedman's book. http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/opinion/25friedman-transcript.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin Two books to read, which offer a cou...

commented on Networks excel over 3 years ago.

Paul Johnston said: Peter - a very insightful way of putting it. It would be interesting to hear your account of how this works in practice - what in your view are good examples of connected government in practice?

commented on The Road Not Traveled: Education in MENA over 3 years ago.

Life Insurance blog said: the insurance companies don't want you to know Information on the life insurance industry

commented on The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Revisited over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: The opponents of globalisation tend to argue on two fronts - it doesn't work and it will end up making us all look the same. The evidence would suggest neither of those propositions is true. It has always struck me that, as people legitimately enjoy the fruits of a flatter world, they are just as assiduous in their search for, and enjoyment of, what we might call the 'hyper local' dimensions of their lives. Not only are te Lexus and the Olive Tree not opposites...

commented on Government 2.0 - a longer perspective over 3 years ago.

Steve Pollock said: Intractable, yes. However, as suggested, the will of the people most often prevails and the next generation of citizen will most likely demand the new type of services promised by Web 2.0. Our children, and our children’s children, will demand this level of interaction with those providing services whether it’s public sector, healthcare, or pizza delivery. This is evident to me having observed the on-line activities of the 2nd grade class at San Ramon Elementary. As m...

commented on Metcalfe’s law is wrong (?) over 3 years ago.

Raymond Versteegh said: Stimulating reading, Russell. It pressed me to take a second run ... And concluded that Ray's Law might be applicable here as 'the value of the network is infinite by the contribution of one for the empowerment of many' ...

commented on Metcalfe’s law is wrong (?) over 3 years ago.

osimod said: Russell, I like your point on economics of network. The qualitative change of ICT is often the most important and cannot be captured easily by nuimbers. My own motto (rather than a law :)) would be paraphrasing the management motto: if you can't measure it, you can't manage it: "if you can measure it, it doesn't matter"

commented on "A Cautionary Tale on Networks" over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Sorry - forgot to add a reference to Benkler's Wealth of Networks...http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Main_Page

commented on "A Cautionary Tale on Networks" over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Actually, at one level he doesn't get it! Maybe this is going to sound like reverse heresy and a bad case of too much Cisco-think, but when you trawl the work of people like David Weinberger and Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks), someone is obviously way off here. Now it may be that these folks are having themselves on and that Paul Thomas is right to sound a cautionary note. Actually, I thought it was a great piece and very much in tune with people like Ge...

commented on An intractable challenge! over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: This kind of writing is alluring and annoying in equal measure. Alluring because he’s partly right and is clearly picking up the same signals and trends that many others are, ourselves included. Annoying though because in many ways the analysis misses the point, which is to describe how any of these changes or new capabilities adds up to truly transformed government. How much of this story is really all about doing government, traditional government, better (fast...

commented on "A Cautionary Tale on Networks" over 3 years ago.

John Connell said: Paul Thomas is probably right when he says, "Bureaucracy is a persistent organizational form with legendary survival skills. Bureacracies will continue to be relied upon because they represent stability, controllability and predictability – attributes that allow for political direction and democratic accountability." He is using 'network' in its broader, non-technology sense, which is fine, but even he will acknowledge, I am sure, that the persistence of bureaucracies in m...

commented on "A Cautionary Tale on Networks" over 3 years ago.

Paul Johnston said: As you say, it is an interesting article and you can clearly see the academic who is sceptical of a fad. I can see why he might be annoyed by people who glibly say "its all about networks" without really meaning anything by it, but hopefully when we say it, we do actually mean something by it! I do also agree that even if there are many possibilities of radical change, some things will not change - power-broking by politicians, organising and co-ordinating by bureaucrats etc.

commented on An intractable challenge! over 3 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: As something of an adjunct to Martin's piece, here's an article from Don Tapscott's collaborator, Tony Williams. Tony ends his piece (much of which resonates in the TCR community) stating that we're "in a new golden age of democracy". While I think there is real and meaningful hope for that being the case, such statements cause me concern, for their implicit high-mindedness, not to mention providing a context for what democracy actually means in the world today... Gover...

commented on Content through Collaboration over 3 years ago.

David Wilcox said: As you suggest, there's increasing interest in personal, social learning environments. Stephen Downes has done a great video - referenced here: http://tinyurl.com/3xzcrv I've also had a lot of fun on a couple of occasions with a game to help teachers design PLEs: http://tinyurl.com/yog5h6

commented on Opening Up the Debate over 3 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: I like the structure and logic of this approach. One thought occurs to me, though, which is the government-centric nature of the whole process. Essentially, this is about finding ways to make what the government wants to do more susceptible to community input and feedback. But it assumes that it is for governments to 'propose' and others to 'oppose' (or whatever they want to do once the government has started the process). Presumably we need to figure out ways to...

commented on The Road Not Traveled: Education in MENA over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It's probably a bit hard to ask 400 pages to be made clear in one blog posting, but I'm not entirely sure what the World Bank is actually proposing - more engineering, less engineering, more 'accountability', some 'decentralisation and coordination' (whatever that means)? There's an interesting discussion here in Australia right now about the extent to which education policy and funding, and the investment in and implementation of the core technology infrastructure...

commented on Just who does connectedness empower? over 4 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: I'm sure that these types of claims were leveled at the Gutenberg press almost 600 years ago. Earning cheap political points is the domain of those bereft of ideas, who'd rather prey on fear, not hope. Genuinely shameful, but sadly not the sole domain of NZ mouth-breathers... It does beg a question around what kind of fiery "we must limit technology to save us from ourselves" rhetoric we've yet to hear. Related to this, there was a piece on the Generative Internet a ...

commented on Exploring the Empowerment Agenda over 4 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: I certainly share Martin's view that the idea that people will take off to the Caribbean, rather than use funds for their intended purpose is an unfair characterization, though I understand the intent of Paul's statement. There is no such thing as a 100% elimination of abuse, no matter what model we may be speaking of. There are however, many ways in which elgibility can be better and more consistently determined and to me, that's where this has to start. To be sure, I...

commented on The Road Not Traveled: Education in MENA over 4 years ago.

John Connell » Blog Archive » The Road Not Traveled: Education in MENA said: [...] has been cross-posted to the ConnectedRepublic [...]

commented on Just who does connectedness empower? over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Nice story to illustrate that connectedness, and the technology on which it relies, is neither good nor bad it's what people chose to do with it, fired by whatever moral purpose they have and harnessed to whatever purpose. I'm inclined to support the move to put the towers up. Even if the Burmese junta thinks it can press the new capability for better communications to its own purposes, the record suggests they won't succeed in repressing the instincts for openne...

commented on Government 2.0 - a longer perspective over 4 years ago.

Russell Craig said: Two excellent points. I agree with Paul that we should not expect that people will now wish to engage much more directly, actively or frequently with government just because they have greater capaity to do so. There will always be those who can't or won't engage with government via any medium. So government must be quite sophisticated about how it opens up to new modes of engagement and careful not to mistake those who do for being representative of public attitudes and...

commented on Government 2.0 - a longer perspective over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Paul's right - as he often is. The surge of citizen engagement will be constrained perhaps by Oscar Wilde's dictum that socialism would never take off because there weren't enough Tuesday nights (for people to attend the interminable public meetings on which the entire proces relies). However, Russell's great review of the way we got to where we have arrived also reminds us that, to soe extent, what web 2.0 and the rest is offering is the chance for people to engag...

commented on Government 2.0 - a longer perspective over 4 years ago.

Paul Johnston said: One interesting issue for me in this is whether (or to what extent) citizens have permanently out-sourced government to politicians and civil servants. Like you, I think there are great opportunities now to empower citizens and I think citizens will take a lot of those up, but I still think we need to be realistic about how much time the average citizen is going to be prepared to devote in this area. Obviously at different times in people's lives the time and effort they a...

commented on Goodbye to Consumerism, hello to Produsage? over 4 years ago.

Nick Anstead » links for 2008-01-28 said: [...] The Connected Republic » Blog Archive » Goodbye to Consumerism, hello to Produsage? The move to produsage? (tags: Production consumption) [...]

commented on Exploring the Empowerment Agenda over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Just to push back a little... 1 I appreciate that blind faith in human nature can be dangerous, but to assume that people with mental illness or their carers will rush off to the Caribbean instead of using the resources to help their condition is a little unfair (even if it's possible to find some examples, as you would in pretty much any public welfare program I guess). I appreciate that good policy making has to consider the outlier problems, but to use that kin...

commented on Exploring the Empowerment Agenda over 4 years ago.

Terry Ansari said: While I can generally get behind the overarching notion of empowering users of state-supported services, the question of which services this might encompass must pass real and meaningful tests associated with reasonableness, eligibility, measurable results and value for money. Particularly in the case of disability and mental health, how does the creation of a voucher system not create more bureaucracy rather than less? Would the services already being delivered need to b...

commented on Goodbye to Consumerism, hello to Produsage? over 4 years ago.

Public Strategy said: Producing consumption and consuming production Producing consumption and consuming production, prousage and co-production in the context of social policy.

commented on Goodbye to Consumerism, hello to Produsage? over 4 years ago.

Axel Bruns said: Hi Paul, thanks for the write-up, and the invitation to comment on it. I think the key aspect I'd add here is that we need to draw an important distinction between informational and industrial production/produsage in this discussion: produsage, at least at present, operates almost exclusively in the informational realm, where the preconditions (probabilistic approaches, equipotential involvement, granularity of tasks, and shared content) are most likely to be met. So, it wou...

commented on Empowering the Poor over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Great story - a good reminder of the famous observation that the only thing that's different between the rich and the poor is that the rich have got more money! Which suggests that the key to success is to find ways to get more money and assets into the hands of poor communities so they can start the normal wealth creation cycle that everyone else relies on. The governance piece is obviously important too, as Molly's story suggests. But in the end, communities c...

commented on Making Sense of Empowerment over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Great post and some really good issues raised here. It prompted some questions: Why are empowerment and good quality public services seen as mutually exclusive choices? Why do we assume that people on the lower end of the socio-economic scale won’t be able to negotiate, either themselves or with whatever support and advice they need, a service mix and outcome at least equal to, and perhaps superior to, anyone else? Why do we start from the assumption that comman...

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

Idetrorce said: very interesting, but I don't agree with you Idetrorce

commented on Government 2.0 - two cheers for the romantics? over 4 years ago.

John Connell » Blog Archive » connectedrepublic.org said: [...] Stockholm and Oslo - he took part in a discussion on ‘Government 2.0′ which had input from some highly experienced people from various parts of the [...]

commented on Government 2.0 - Two Cheers for the Romantics Part 2 over 4 years ago.

John Connell » Blog Archive » connectedrepublic.org said: [...] flavour of the blog can be seen in the recent contribution from Martin Stewart-Weeks (who I met and had the pleasure of working with in Sydney a couple of months ago). Martin, like [...]

commented on The Good Old, Slow-to-Change Public Sector over 4 years ago.

Public Strategy said: Why is change slow? Anybody who has spent any time working in the public sector will have got used to being told how much better everything is in the private sector, and will probably also have learned to brush such comments aside without taking

commented on Varieties of Education over 4 years ago.

Jim Wynn said: Today’s news that a couple of schools have been found to have changed student answers in statutory tests is an indicator of the pressures being brought onto the education system through continuous and incessant attention to standards, efficiency and effectiveness. League tables, which do not officially exist in the UK, are constructed from Government data by newspapers and a small number of measures are used to compare the effectiveness of a schools with one another, when publ...

commented on Varieties of Education over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart Weeks said: i think Sir Ken's rather more substantive point, rather than should we have more dance on the curiculum, is that we have reached a stage where we need to revisit exactly what it is we think the education system, and the process it enables, is meant to be achieving. if it's not feeding the factories of the industrial era or the intellectual requirements of the university sector, what is the point? And how do we make sure that the way we design and manage education,...

commented on Is Mobile Government (or m-Government) Inevitable? over 4 years ago.

Ivan said: Hi, my name is disman-kl, i like your site and i ll be back ;)

commented on The Next Big Thing over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart Weeks said: Fair point, but even if people are time-poor, harassed and generally not in a position to find the time and resources to go off and 'do it for themselves', they will still likely be responsive to attempts by those more responsive service providers to offer some sort of opportunity for service users to offer their ideas about how best to make the services more aligned to their needs. it's a question of degree, perhaps - not everyone will be in a position to co-creat...

commented on Management 2.0 over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart Weeks said: Of course I believe in people and culture - I was trying to be a bit tongue-in-cheek I guess. The risk with Hamel's prescription is that he seems to discount the people, culture and other real-life issues that matter very much and is in danger of giving the impression that the Internet can somehow transcend these challanges. So long as we keep it all in perspective, I think his basic point about the transformative potential of the Internet, remains true

commented on The Next Big Thing over 4 years ago.

Alex Stobart said: Martin A the Government Computing event earlier this year. William Heath put together an exhibition and it is here http://www.thepublicoffice.org.uk/ This was a series of five case studies that showed how challenging people found it to interact with the UK government. Your earlier commenter points out that it is interesting when people go off and do it for themselves to show government the lead. One issue for the case studies is that for them, leading often extremely ch...

commented on Management 2.0 over 4 years ago.

Alex Stobart said: Paul Great to see your work and it was Jeremy Gould at MofJ that passed on the link. Look forward to seeing how government changes..... Alex

commented on Reflections on India over 4 years ago.

Jim Wynn said: Thanks for the invite, I loved it so much "I will be back" as someone once said. I only visited a tiny, tiny part, I realise that, so perhaps I should reflections from Amber? I did learn a llot from the communities I visited which was the main purpose of my visit.

commented on Management 2.0 over 4 years ago.

Diogo Vasconcelos said: Aren't “the pesky issues of people, culture" crucial ? Do you believe in a world without managers?

commented on Reflections on India over 4 years ago.

Girish Mahadevan said: Its gr8 2 read a feedback post about my country, but i feel the title needs to be revamped as its not ur "reflection in India" rather Its a miniature part of India, coz India is the most diversified country as far as "a tourist experience" is concerned. so u need 2 explore our country again for having that title.;-) ...ur welcome anytime.. regards Girish

commented on Foy’s Law over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Lovely - this is exactly the import of a great paper by NokiaUK marketing director Will Harris on the rise of the mobile 'super users'. His point is that the super users, who live and thrive on the mobile phone, are exactly the kind of informal, social, not-committee types that Foy's law predicted. And the point Harris makes is that it is these people whose values and behaviour are proving to be corrosive to many of the traditions of hierarchical institutions and ...

commented on What’s holding Enterprise 2.0 back? over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: The biggest challenge of this phase of the 'live' web is the need to assess but not to judge, or at least not too quickly. By that I mean the need for some patience and openness (to use an appropriate word) which will avoid the risk of rushing to judge and dismiss certain experiments and, with them, some of the underlying values to which they are attempting to give effect. As Jim says, this is all very new and we're pretty much making it up as we go along. The oc...

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: I'm not sure the political blogs will be so transient. I like Milliband's blog. I also read with interest the blog on the FCO's blog aggregator from the outgoing British Ambassador ro Afghanistan, a heartfelt, lucid and very direct (for a diplomat!) account of a particuarly significant place and time. If we want these new tools to create a greater sense of immediacy and intimacy, then I think they work well, at their best. I see that as an enduring and not a pas...

commented on The Great e-Petitions Debate over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Paul's comments are important because they highlight the often unrealistic expectations with which these kinds of ventures are greeted. So because ePetitions fail to pretty much change the nature of the democratic conversation all on their own and overnight they are dismissed as peripheral or unimportant. We're much better, and wiser, to see these initiatives as cumulative and incremental, each one chipping away at the hard rock of entrenched practice and politica...

commented on The Next Big Thing over 4 years ago.

destere said: Hi all! I was very much helped by the information with this article. Many thanks at you very fascinating resource. Bye

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

David Wilcox said: Paul - good to meet you at the conference, and congratulations on your approach. Rather more radical than many institutional e-democracy projects. In case thge trackback doesn't work, here's a link to the interview http://www.designingforcivilsociety.org/2007/11/cisco-champions.html

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

Designing for Civil Society said: Cisco champions the Connected Republic - and its citizens Click to Play or go to blip.tv Some of the strongest advocacy for the democratic power of online networks that I heard at the e-democracy conference 07 was embodied in the work of a private sector company - Cisco Systems.As

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

Headstar E-Government Blog » Blog Archive » Cisco champions the Connected Republic - and its citizens said: [...] to engage with other people with similar interests. They see it as a voyage of discovery.Paul is blogging on the site, demonstrating he is prepared to take a critical look the way things are going at present: The [...]

commented on Politicians and e-democracy over 4 years ago.

Steven Clift said: I want to strongly endorse Coleman's suggestion that citizen-to-citizen is huge area for development. The key is to craft citizen-to-citizen participation online among politicians and governments so they can be indirectly and sometimes directly influenced. That is the approach we take with Issues Forums at E-Democracy.Org. Steven Clift

commented on What’s holding Enterprise 2.0 back? over 4 years ago.

Jim Wynn said: I think that you will get all sorts of behaviours to this new public world, grandstanding, lurking and so on but these behaviours are all so new that different rules and acceptable actions inside these new interactions are being built just as quickly as the technology is enabling new ways to interact - what seems to be interesting is that the less formal interactions are grabbing the order of the day and what is acceptable is changing quickly. In particular, what is acceptabl...

commented on Breakfast in Phuket over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: You're right, Chris, he is brilliant and he has gone far... Two ideas...the first is that the best custodians of personal data are the people about whom that data is created. The second is that, if we either can't or don't want to take on that responsibility directly, it is a role that could be taken on by civil society - basically, non-government organisations whose stock-in-trade is trust. Maybe that is what an Identity Foundation is? My sense is that this is ...

commented on Nurturing Talent over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: I agree but it's an interesting insight into a debate that seems riven by these simple dichotomies - we need more focus on learners or more focus on effetive educators, as if these two things are mutually exclusive. Mike is right - the temper of these Web 2.0 times is very much about how users and producers forge new combinations to create insight, impact and effectiveness. In way , the kind of divides that Jim is highlighting are symptomatic of an era that is rap...

commented on Nurturing Talent over 4 years ago.

Mike Gibbons said: As always a really powerful observation by Jim about the connected educator. But also I think it important that we avoid a false oppostion between learner centricity and educator effectiveness. We need both. Using its Next Practice programme the UK based Innovation Unit is encouraging practitioner led innovation and developing its thinking on user voice. Jim is right though to urge that the pace of reform in education needs to be unrelenting.

commented on Breakfast in Phuket over 4 years ago.

Chris Cook said: I'm reminded of the first time I met Cisco's Simon Willis at a Unisys gig on Money Laundering he was hosting (fresh out of the Treasury) at the Unisys campus in St Paul de Vence, France (very nice). One of the contributors - Hamish Pringle , ex Saatchi, from memory - had commissioned a UK survey of who people trusted with their data. The EU was last (25% ish trusted), UK government next last (about 40%); Microsoft, maybe 50%; Marks & Spencer came second best at > 60%...

commented on The Next Big Thing over 4 years ago.

Martin Stewart-Weeks said: Perfect response! Couldn't agree more, but my sense is that not too many governments do get it and don't even recognise they are already falling behind.

commented on The Next Big Thing over 4 years ago.

Frank Goodman said: I am a bit sceptical about how different the next generation are - haven't young people been saying this sort of thing at least since the 70's? What I find more interesting is when citizens go off and do things with Web 2.0 technologies and government then has to catch up. I think government does begin to get it when it sees how people can use some of these technologies to empower themselves.

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