Saturday, November 25, 2006

"The First Flowering of the Network World"


This lovely BBC report is perfectly timed. It resonates with all we have been saying. It is a great postscript for the course.

3 comments:

Ian K said...

wsfsetfesd

Ian K said...

Something went wrong, it all came out gobbledygook....

Try again

What I wanted to say was that it is indeed a lovely report. Two things come to mind.
Firstly, it is forecast that there will be a phase change in the nature of power caused by communities interacting on the web to generate concerted and co-ordinated action. All down to our friends Moore (Gordon), Metcalfe and Coase. The implications of this are huge, so far we are not seeing too much impact other than the rapid sharing of imformation. What has not happened is a group of individuals working together across national and cultural boundaries to use their power to get things changed. It has happenned a little bit but I suspect it is coming. For example, diregarding whatever politic leanings one may have, imagine what could happen if the people in the UK (1-2 million) who took to the streets to protest the war in Iraq all got connected and started to self organise. Then they connect to their counterparts in other countries and it becomes clear that there is a very significant constituency in many nations who are opposed to what is being argued for by the politicians. Then they decide to do something, as a group. Whovever was "in power" at the time would have a problem...
The second big issue that seems to be hinted at is about that tricky subject, democracy. Yet another of those words or phrases, like "user friendly" whose meaning has been devalued because of its innapropriate use. I do not see real democracy anywhere where it is touted. Apparently Iceland gets pretty close, or so I am told. What is needed is informed democracy and that is what the 'net can really help with. Interesting that Dutch voters are showing the way here, I hope we all follow their lead. Then political systems may start to reflect the will of the people. Whilst we live in (relatively) uninformed democracy I fear we will not see too much real change.
My fear is that these two possibilities get put together in a bad way. Powerful uninformed democracy could be awful. All you have to do is look at what has happened with TV over the past few years to get a taste of what that would mean.

Get me out of here, I'm a hopeless idealist.

Anonymous said...

I agree entirely with the first comment.