

Gov IIX - cjoh
http://infovegan.com/2010/07/22/gov-iix

======
jerf
It's difficult to imagine how one could have a "Gov 2.0" in analogy to a "Web
2.0" without massive decentralization and disintermediation, two critical
aspects of Web 2.0. But that's not happening. Power continues to centralize in
DC and we continue to step-by-step lurch ever closer to the sort of failure
you get when you completely centralize all power.

At best, transparency is an enabling step towards Gov IIX, perhaps even a
necessary step, but right now I see no evidence that any aspect of our Gov is
actually decentralizing or disintermediating (since after all it would be
disintermediating _itself_ ). Until that happens, "Gov 2.0" talk is just "Gov
1.0"'s attempts to rhetorically dress itself in the glory of the Web so it can
use it as cover to grab more power while telling credulous webbies that it's
actually _them_ getting the power.

Kind of getting closer to the ideas in the original essay, the interesting
question is whether the 2.0/IIX social forces will sweep away the current
governmental structure even if it doesn't like it and actively fights it.
Obama's election involved the left coming together in a 2.0 style to elect
him, though the coalition seems to have fallen apart after that, and the Tea
Party is no more and no less than the conservatives and the libertarians in
temporary alliance doing the same thing, but in both cases just feeding their
energies back into Gov 1.0. Neither of these forces are going away, even if
they're still only starting up in fits and starts on the year scale. At some
point, do they become so vital that they begin to truly control the
government, and truly start forcing it to decentralize power? There are some
good ways that could turn out, there are some bad (localized tyranny-of-the-
majority is still a tyranny-of-the-majority). Or will Gov 1.0 finally
centralize enough power in the industrialized western world to completely shut
that down? (Are they "on the clock"?)

Interesting times.

------
j_baker
Not to mention that the whole "gov 2.0" movement is at best a 0.1 level
update. It adds new functionality, but doesn't break backwards compatibility
with previous versions.

~~~
jbooth
It's a play on "web 2.0", moving from cathedrals and walled gardens to a fully
visible system where anyone can get information about any part. I'm sure
they've done lots of things poorly and the specifications meetings have been
hell but I don't see how anyone can oppose the general idea/direction.

~~~
j_baker
I know. It was a joke. :-)

