Cloudy City-State

In 'Athens' on the Net, Anand Giridharadas examines wikipolitics, web-facilitated mass collaboration in governance. Don Tapscott's book, Wikinomics, is a technologist's bible, extolling four virtues: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally. When applied, through new technology, to political processes, these principles provide substantial opportunity for reshaping the role of an informed and active citizenry. Giridharadas acknowledges the promise of possibilities for user-generated government, but also raises concerns.

He worries the polarizing nature of Internet dialog, where people, with increasing freedom to meet and network with those sharing their philosophy, are neglecting interacting with opposing views. With the Web enabling free-reign for our confirmation bias, we may well be losing sources for moderating influence. Beyond partisan polarization, Giridharadas notes the ease of gaming Internet app algorithms, where a MrBabyMan may misrepresent a larger community in support of a particular policy position. (As an aside, I was among the first to note the use of bots by Ron Paul supporters on social bookmarking sites.) Finally, Giridharadas raises concern about the signal-to-noise ratio in online communications. He quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who famously stated, “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” Without the filter of professional journalism, we may drown in the gibberish and misinformation of online media. Without columnists exploring new and intriguing ideas, what material will bloggers have to rehash?

Giridharadas's anxieties are valid. For the increasingly polarization of our political dialog, I have no answer beyondthe hope that creating new communities will attract disparate views, battlegrounds to confront our Tolstoy syndrome. I hope that the deterioration of privacy will close, with openness, any possibility of “simulated support.” As Internet anonymity erodes, we will be able to unmask impersonators. Finally, I hope that the lensing of peering will adequately filter irrelevance. I must note that cesspools are teeming with life. Yes, I still have hope.

I chose to respond to this column to provide an opportunity to voice my own idea for a Gov 2.0 project. I am interested in creating a resource where citizens can engage the legislative process. Let's put bills online in a way allowing citizens and congress-critters to comment in-line, to share sections, offer revisions, and vote. Beyond citizen briefs, let's facilitate collaborative citizen bills, allowing each of us the tools to write and promote our own legislation. If you are interested in helping create this forum for a wiki-style legislature, we can easily enact this vision with available open-source tools.

For more info on the future of a prosuming populace, watch this documentary:

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.