Change Agents: Wikigov Is Now!

I just came across this somber article from GCN that recasts the well-publicized stories of crowd sourcing and asks the hurry-up-and-wait question,”Is it time for Wikigov?”

In my opinion, Generation Y change agents within our government would never even ask this question since they understand that crowd sourcing can be a valuable problem solving tool. In fact, if you consider that every regulation proposed in America receives open publication and feedback solicitation through the Federal Register, you quickly come to realize that our government has been in the crowd sourcing business for decades. What’s new is the maturity of the web, and its ability to eliminate the costs of coordinating a crowd. Here are some questions I would like to see posed to government innovators as they embrace and face the new models posed by the “wisdom of the crowds”:

• Do experts in the government consistently demonstrate more wisdom than a well monitored and diverse crowd?
• Why shouldn’t the government consider enabling many pilot programs to tap the wisdom of the American people? Why just dip your foot in the water when a market based economy (read: a very wise crowd) is at the heart of what it means to even live in America?
• With all of the retirements within the government over the next 5 years, can we really afford to notthink innovatively about how to enable a different conversation with the American people about how we can best solve problems?
• With the amount of outsourcing cone by the government, why should we take a cautious approach to engaging the free minds and wisdom that come with harnessing the innovation of a diverse and normal distribution of people?
• Why is the government moving so slowly in embracing web 2.0? In the Global War on Terror for example, do we actually think the terrorists are missing the chance to collaborate through the web to solve the complex problems of their deranged visions?

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