Although Wikinomics was mostly about business, Don and I have always felt that the wikinomics era holds the promise and the inevitability of new models for delivering the functions of government. Our conversations with public sector leaders over the past few months have really reinforced this view. Just as new waves of innovation are washing over the private sector, the imperative to harness new models of collaboration and innovation is arriving at the doorstep of governments everywhere.
Now, on behalf of New Paradigm, I’m pleased to announce that we are using the lens of Wikinomics to launch a global investigation into the future of government and democracy. The investigation will identify and analyze emerging opportunities to harness new models of collaboration to transform public sector organizations — from government agencies and political parties to health care providers and educational organizations around the world.
Our overarching goal is to equip participating organizations with the insights required to harness new models of Web-based collaboration to reinvent the way they develop policy, partner across institutional boundaries, and engage and serve their constituents. Among other things, the research program will help public sector organizations:
- Renovate the tired rules that inhibit innovation with new models of Web-enabled collaboration that cut across departmental silos to improve policy outcomes, reduce costs, and increase public value
- Achieve breakthroughs in public service delivery and organizational effectiveness by deploying emerging Web 2.0 technologies
- Understand what today’s global youth really expect of government and how they will behave as citizens and consumers of public services
- Differentiate employee recruitment programs to appeal to the incoming wave of Net Generation workers
- Reinvigorate democratic processes with technology-enabled approaches to policy-making, problem solving, citizen engagement and stakeholder consultation
- Solve enduring policy challenges with collaborative approaches to issues such as climate change, education, health care, and national security
In spirit of experimenting with new models of democracy we’ve just launched a new public wiki where we’re inviting the wikinomics community to help us do the research! Please take some time to visit and contribute. Registered users can:
- Learn about the program and contribute new ideas to our list of research topics
- Post your suggestions for case study candidates and other resources
- Help the community author a Government 2.0 Manifesto: the things governments should be doing now to harness mass collaboration and the web 2.0 to increase the efficiency of public services and reinvigorate democrac
- Ask the community questions and start discussions on the Gov 2.0 blog.
We hope you get a chance to check it out!
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Great move but as I say on my Blog I think not only that we should doing this on our side of the Atlantic (UK) but that we need to get the civil servants involved, free them up to think, talk and build Government delivery. There is real potential in the Gov workforce and like any other mutinational, Gov should be harnessing it.
Comment by Paul Caplan - May 12, 2007 8:54 am
Open innovation meets wikinomics
I’m with Paul Caplan in being really excited to see the guys who produced so much buzz with Wikinomics are now taking their gospel of innovation through open collaboration into the public sector. It’s great encouragement for our team in
Trackback by Designing for Civil Society - May 13, 2007 5:53 am
This brilliant initiative comes just as a UK team are putting together an “open source bid” to Government for a £1.2 million Open Innovation Exchange http://www.innovationexchange.net. We wondered if we were crazy … this is terrific encouragement in feeling we are not!
Comment by David Wilcox - May 13, 2007 6:05 am
The idea of bringing Web2.0 (/Open Source / Peer-to-Peer) participation model to governement and public services is very interesting, and should be studied more.
Someone else is trying to do the same thing:
http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/archive/public-services-20.aspx
http://www.designcouncil.info/mt/RED/
Maybe you can share something and collaborate! I am interested in this idea too!
I am a designer, and I have been trying to bring the Web2.0 (/Open Source /Peer-to-Peer) participation model into service design since 2005: http://www.openp2pdesign.org
So you can find people interested in Governement 2.0 also in the design world!
Comment by Massimo Menichinelli - September 12, 2007 6:05 am
This is an excellent idea. Initially, I fell into the thinking of how difficult it would be to introduce the same kinds of innovation discussed in Wikinomics to the public sector. Then, as my mind opened and I began to think instead about the inevitability of the net generation coming of age, and the very real need for innovation right now, I have more than embraced the concepts and would like to help implement them.
Comment by Mike Chapman - December 8, 2007 1:22 pm
[...] Williams, who spoke at IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference last year, is spearheading nGenra’s (formerly NewParadigm’s) Government 2.0 project. [See Williams' 2007 post on the project here.] [...]
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