Shaping Network Society

If you are graduating in these times of crisis, think of the amazing opportunities that the combination of web technologies, collaborative production, and the idea of open access offer. Consider starting something like mySociety for your country.

Hello! We are mySociety – we run most of the UK’s best known democracy websites.
Using our services, 200,000 people have written to their MP for the first time, over 8,000 potholes and other broken things have been fixed, nearly 9,000,000 signatures have been left on petitions to the Prime Minister, and at least 77 tiny hats have been knitted for charity.

They created apps like, theworkforyou, fixmystreet, hearfromyourmp, or groupsnearyou. The code is open source, join them, or start your own projects. It is time for planetary public policy. RT @schellong #gov20 UK activities (Fixmystreet, etc.) http://www.mysociety.org/

Yesterday, Vivek Kundra launched several open government initiatives, most importantly the site Data.gov. It makes raw governmental data available in machine-readable format and allows users to build applications with the data. This type of governance by opening up (radical transparency as a management model) fully utilizes the power of web technologies and social media. It offers a fundamental shift in how we understand the role of the state: The contractarian/administrative state of the last centuries was integrated through the institution of the state and the secret (arcana imperii, administrative secrets), while governance in network society is integrated through the ability of mashing up machine-readable data into new forms of public value. The site is not finished and open government is a collaborative process, so the White House is asking for public participation on how to develop this new paradigm. The National Academy for Public Administration also put up an ideation platform. What do you think about the launch? The user interface? First applications? And what this will mean for your countries?

PS: To read the testimony of Vivek Kundra at the Subcommittee Hearing on: “The State of Federal Information Security”