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.

Keeping Up With The Times Seems Impossible Now That I'm In The Real World

I was sitting in my window office... err... cubicle this morning and Microsoft Outlook (ewww) informed me that the book I had ordered for the research department at work was in! Grown Up Digital, the latest book from Dan Tapscott is a followup to one of my favourite books ever, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of The Net Generation. OK, enough plugs... the point is, Dan Tapscott is one of the few people in the Baby Boom generation who recognize the massive wave of change that my generation has been unleashing (and will continue to unleash) on the world... and he predicted it all before YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter even existed!

So, as I'm beginning to read this book, waiting for my corporate issue computer to chug through some mandatory upgrade which I know for a fact won't make it faster, I can't help but wonder what I'm missing out on in the digital world. I'm reading this book and it's talking about N-Geners who have multiple RSS feeds, speak to their whole family around the world on Skype, and read about 50 blogs per week. I've used an RSS feed, I'll read a blog here or there, but I've never talked to anyone on Skype (especially not family... I'll pass). Am I somehow falling behind in technology already? I've only been out of school for about a year, how can this happen?

I blame closed mindedness. I love my job, and I love my company, but honestly, it pains me to use my work computer. When I log onto Facebook, it tells me that support for my browser is being phased out and I need to upgrade... can I upgrade? Of course not! When I want to look up where I'm going FOR A WORK TRIP on Google maps... does my computer lock up? Of course it does! Even more painful, when I first started I had the option of downloading firefox (albeit an outdated version)... that ended about 2 days after I installed it and my computer became useless.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why we have the systems we do. If everyone has the same computer running the same software, blah blah blah then everything runs smoother. Here's the problem... companies who are moving forward with technology have realized that the future of the workplace is web based. Google Docs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Wave..... there are all the tools of the future and you can run them off of any computer, even the crappy one at your local library.

POINT: I'm not here to complain about my technology at work... I'm here to make a point using my situation as an example that companies need to be thinking about web based options for their systems if they plan on impressing the workers of the Net Generation. If I want to blow the coin and get myself a mac to use at my cube, why the heck not!? Sure, there's always going to be some type of mandatory security software that needs to be installed, but technology openness is what I demand!

PS: A 17 inch screen is NOT suitable as a second monitor. 26 inch or go home IMO.