Open Government & "True Democracy"

I was pointed to John Kamensky's post on Collaborative Governance, which was mainly discussing Beth Noveck's new book about "Wiki Government." It was an interesting read, but had lots of jargon and definitions those political science types keep us common folks confused and remain two steps behind.

The idea of opening up the government to hearing more of the public's opinion and allowing for more participation on the citizen (or "grassroots") level has been thrown around a lot, especially since the beginning of the Obama administration (or think back to his online-media-savvy campaigning team).

I know that there is a lot of potential to this approach, and numerous possible benefits to bring us closer to "true democracy" (whatever that might mean, I take it means less power to the rich), but count me among the cynics who see this more as a theoretical, abstract construct that has been nothing more than gimmicks so far.

I don't know anything about the Obama adminstration's "Open for Questions" forum, but if my memory serves me well the "apply for a job in the Obama administration" website was put up with all the buzz but pretty much went nowhere. Who really got a job through this thing other than people that already know someone through his campaign or have worked in his campaign?? (if you do, please let me know, so I can slap myself and stand corrected). My point is, the "open government initiatives" we've seen so far do not appear more than just a dog and pony show. It might have been started with good intentions, but the lack of follow through or sustainable development is embarrasing.

My other concern is the use of online technology to encourage and increase public participation. I don't know about other places people go online, but I myself am a proud purse forum member (haha shamelessly so), and let me tell you, it is ridiculously easy, and I repeat, absolutely ridiculously easy to start an online riot against a particular product or brand. The ability for people to distort information, manipulate opinion, and instigate a rapid contagion of emotions is still something that amazes me to this day. And I myself am pretty good at it as well.

Now perhaps this is what the printed and tv news media is already doing to us, so it's only fair that online means can be employed as well. I do not contest that at all. I am only cautioning that "open technology" as a means to improving governance might not be the be all and end all that so many people are hailing these days.

Here's a cartoonish scenario I offer you to close: imagine when light bulbs were first invented, people found out that there're so many things that they can now do with the presence of light bulbs that they didn't use to be able to do. They also notice that light bulbs emits heat. So they thought perhaps they can warm food up with it, if not cook their steak on the bulb.

Take it as what you may.