[open-government] Leapfrogging open government

[Anton Stoychev]

Hello everyone,

I've been a member of the mailing list for a while but haven't posted anything so far. My involvement in OGP has been about its implementation in Bulgaria and its capabilities for modernization of the administration.

It would be interesting to know your opinion on a piece of text about culture, borders and the harm by them, titled "It's time to have no countries". It's closely related to good governance. It is a recent publication, preceding the events in Brussels, so it's not provoked by them. It was provoked by visible progress in the direction described in the article and the reappearing problems in current governance mechanisms.

So. Fantasy / possibility / a-must? How do you find it?

Noticeably, I think the offered is possible and we have the chance to t some huge efforts that are currently invested into slow transition towards that. Instead we can focus on the further goal and be a few steps ahead.

Some provocation and inspiration:

• Latest news from BitNation is that they are working on "a decentralised, open source, and pseudonymous dispute resolution chat platform" - a sovereign blockchain jurisdiction
• Blockchain application in Smart Contracts (other implementation also exist)
• Updates from the Venus project
• Progress in smart cities' research
• Frustration in travelling and being an expat
• Propaganda increase, say even presidential rallies
• Honor/trust-based startups
• "The software told me so" - the ecosystem of smart apps, fintech startups working around banking monopoly and the increasing amount of open source projects from businesses create a demand for a collaborative way of remote/online decision making, so sooner or later such will exist

There were some nice discussions over the social networks. I think this is a good place to look for opinions as well.

Kind Regards,

Anton Stoychev

Creating a better way to understand ____ via design and technology

​web: 

www.obshtestvo.bg

tel: (+40) 073 523 0801

[Josh Tauberer]

we have the chance to t some huge efforts that are currently invested into slow transition towards that. Instead we can focus on the further goal and be a few steps ahead.

If we all stopped doing the things that are achievable today to work instead on goals for tomorrow, then we wouldn't ever achieve anything and tomorrow would never come.

- Josh Tauberer (@JoshData)

http://razor.occams.info

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[Anton Stoychev]

Hello Josh,

The evaluation that this is not achievable today is a self-imposed limitation.

This also doesn't require all professions and all people to stop what they are doing right now. So the pause you describe won't exist. The current way of governance is harmful at a large/global scale which makes it a good area to leapfrog.

If that is still unsatisfying as set of arguments, it can be said that the opposite is also true: If noone tried something different than slow transitions, we won't have things as mobiles.

Kind Regards,
Anton

[J. Albert Bowden]

Agree with Anton here, this is a self-imposed limitation.

Also think its incredibly helpful and informative to expose community members to the broader picture; its actually quite baffling to me how many are not aware of anything beyond the scope of opengov. And even then that scope is limited, further complicating and muddying the waters of the community.
Granted this is an opengov community, but opengov is merely one of many principles of openness, each of which require the rest to be implemented, before fully realizing its potential.

I don't think its healthy as a community to constantly fixate on broad, far-off goals.
I also think its not healthy as a community to have distant goals not clearly defined in a narrative all can digest.

Albert

--

J. Albert Bowden II

jalber...@gmail.com

http://bowdenweb.com/

[Anton Stoychev]

​​Thank you, Albert. So the narrative should be different to be digestible and provoke action. 

Different in what way? Should it include concrete proposal, timeline, options for implementation? Or it should be written in more formal manner? 

Kind Regards,

Anton

[J. Albert Bowden]

Anton,

Different in what way?

I don't think there is a "way"....I'm entirely open to what you are saying, you don't have to reword it for me. For others, it may help to wrap it into the context of what is happening now, so they can make the connection, and relate to it/look to the future.

Others will never be accepting of it regardless, and I'm quite positive there is no turning them around. I'm not saying don't try, but it certainly is not worth my time.

The options you listed sound great and would certainly build a more polished and professional foundation. Certainly something to build on.

What effect(s) it will have....I can't tell you. I feel like opengov in the usa has crawled to a halt, at least in my circles. I'm much more focused on seeing current and/or short term goals being accomplished than I am working to end-game goals.

It totally sucks, but that is reality. I could talk about hypotheticals all day long, but they don't seem to be pushing the needle, actually the responses I've seen seem to be pushing them away.

tl;dr;

Go for it. Although the environment doesn't seem ready for it, it'll be great to have when we do need it.

Cheers,

Albert