The Paradigm Shift- Can Video Games Help Implement Open Government?

I got into a great debate over the weekend with my stepmom over the values of the baby boomers vs. generation y and the merits/pitfalls of each. I won't share the whole debate, but one of the things she brought up is how my generation doesn't realize "what we are losing" by relying so heavily on technology. I probed a bit deeper and she began to talk about how we are communicating through a machine instead of talking face to face like her generation has previously done. I found this fact very interesting as Growing Up Digital explained this exact phenomenon where Baby Boomers actually see the act as "using technology" while my generation sees it literally as talking to another person. My step-mom's point was that even though we are gaining in terms of collaboration and connectivity, we are likely losing something in the process... likely privacy, and the "social skill" of interacting face to face. The other valid point she had was that if my internet goes down or if you take the blackberry/laptop out of my hands we are unable to function very efficiently, if at all.

Question: Do you think that as a society we are becoming too reliant on technology?

As our debate continued, I began sharing with her why I have such a strong belief in the internet. One of these reasons is the potential power to fundamentally shift the way our institutions work. As I started surfing around I found this 7 part mini-doc about this very topic:



After watching this series, I was particularly blown away by the event where the residents of the town decided what projects should be funded with the $20K up for grabs. What was truly amazing was that even the older gentlemen who did not receive funding, were generally OK with it because they realized there were other more pressing issues in the community. The wheel cogs in my head started churning, and I had a light bulb idea on how how the government could be run under a very similar model.

Imagine that we take a version Ontario Budget Simulator for whatever level of government and pair it with A Campaign Platform to take in feedback on policy issues. The government would still have a role in saying, we are going to give $X certain region, and then you lock in your vote via the budget simulator and the aggregate decision is what the government implements. This is really what I think Jane McGonigal is talking about when she says we need to "make the world more like video games" in order to enact change. Afterall, if you can play a videogame and improve your community by doing it, isn't that a way more powerful influencer than handing out flyers for your candidate hoping that he/she is going to do what they promised? I think she's on the right track more and more everyday.

There are definitely some issues with this model, but I think a whole redesign of the system would have to be completed in order to make this successful. For example, how far/often is the public allowed to run a deficit? How do I avoid any one large demographic from completely ignoring another demographic in policy issues? I need to do some more research on this idea to find out if its unique or not, so I think my first stop is Wikinomics.

Question: Do you think that political participation would be greater if it was more like a video game?

As a closing thought, one of my favourite lines from the Us Now videos is that we have "implementation issues, not reasons that we shouldn't do it"... so let's go figure out how to implement these new models for society, and ultimately make our world a better place.