Have a look at this OpEd from NYTimes: "Egypt's Next Steps" > http://bit.ly/fkEiWS <
Fine stuff. But how does this actualize as benefit? Yes, of course I support communications in general, and discussion in general, and good writing in general. But as a tech_docs specialist I concern myself with rubber/pavement. (Think of a Formula 1 car. Details. Details, details, and more details. Not fine essays on aerodynamics. Praxis. Techne.)

I refer to this article for one specific. See the list that follows "There are four important steps that must be taken to resolve the current crisis."
Have a look at what's first. "a council of wise men and women should be assembled to map out a new national vision"
Now replace "national vision" with "policy decision X".

That's what I charged myself with in 1976, after having run a set of community workshops on social justice in general and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade specifically. (Since neo-liberal globalization kicked in big-time that GATT structure has been supplanted.) I saw what good well organized consultation could bring. And I saw how that good fell far short of requirement.

We empower executives with such as OLAP. We produced software for spreadsheeting, for database management. What about decision making? What about citizen engagement in discourse.
Forums? Wikis? Please ... compare those functionalities with the sort of work that's done with Excel. They're bobbles. I know it. And I know that most everyone ignores the problem. Such are the sociological realities of innovation.

My point isn't to write learned essays about all this. My point is to empower that assembly.

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To energize collective intelligence …
… to magnetize the wisdom of crowds.

Thinking together about what is crucial …
… speaking deeply about simple things.
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The people of Egypt complain Mubarak because he doesn't implement meaningful reform.
I complain about web literati because they don't bend to the real social task that's written about so glowingly and so often.

"It's about governance." But as any clear thinker realizes, governance is a matter of culture. And culture is what people do in the course of their daily lives.

I've watched IT fail civil society every step of the way, for decades. No, not malevolence or malice. Mere lack of conviction.

http://gnodal.protension.com

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