Unbundling is cool

One of the many memorable bits from Obama’s stump speeches was a promise to make politics cool again. A new citizenship aesthetic; the rebirth of cool.

IMO, cool politics comes from scraping away old notions of what is not ours, and recovering our sovereignty in the process. At the same time it is about giving. Just ask the jazz greats.

The Vancouver Changecamp is over. It was cool. Lots of enthusiasm, and a new commitment to engagement.

The slidedeck from my piece on ungovernance is below. Click on the title for slideshare tools to enlarge etc.

Unbundling Governance

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Government - the problem is in the language

Jeff Jarvis, in his new book, What Would Google Do, and on his blog, demonstrates that there is an inverse relationship between control and trust.

This is an issue for governments: the more control I have of the ship... the less citizens trust it...the more disenfranchised citizens feel...the less they get involved (tax avoidance, declining volunteerism, poor voter turnout)... now the government tries to "get more involvement" from the citizens so that the government has more legitmacy, more clout. Or, in some cases, the government happily goes about what it wants to do anyway, while people are looking the other way.

The problem is in the language. A government governs. That is, Government drives.

You can't say that a government that is elected with 60% of the vote, in a 25-40% voter turnout has a mandate. Imagine instead government as something that we all do. That the seat of government is distributed. City Hall is there to help people govern themselves. Better outcomes.

Vanchangecamp unconference is coming to Vancouver.

Giving to get

The problem with 'social media' is that it largely isn't.

'I do this for you in order for you to do that for me' describes a relationship that has mutual utility; it's a pale imitation of a caring relationship, and may describe the subtext of traditional business relationship.

We get surplus vitality from giving. Is giving to get social? What does this attitude do to social capital?