Citizen 2.0, Step 3: Co-Deliverer

In his book, "The McDonaldization of Society," George Ritzer points out an invisible obvious fact: McDonald's is able to keep its costs low in part becuase its patrons perform essential functions for the store.  They pour their own drinks, bus their own tables, get their own napkins and other table settings, and in some locations even add their own condiments to their burgers.

Rise of Centralized Mechanistic Decisionmaking

Professor Bhide notes that managers recognize the need for balance between centralized command-and-control and individual initiative and judgment.  But he observes that in recent times “a new form of centralized control has taken root – one that is the work not of old-fashioned autocrats, committees, or rule books but of statistical models and algorithms.” 

Weekly Round-up: September 17, 2010

 

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

Becoming Citizen 2.0: Step Two, Creator

To be a creator is take the step from merely accessing information online (in the form of data or content) to adding new information (again, content or data) online.  Using online tools to submit forms or payment also falls into this category.  There are countless venues through which people can do this: through apps, government Web sites, and nongovernment Web sites.  More on each of these in a moment, becuase to talk about any of them requires an understanding of why anyone should visit any of them.

Finally, a Name!

The six initiatives were announced back in July with little fanfare, but today’s memo provides high level visibility and press that “review our approach to performance management, detail our strategies and key initiatives, and describe the early progress we have achieved.” 

The Week That Was

Open Gov:  Keeping up with what’s going on, on Twitter.  A new on-line “daily paper” has been created and dedicated to OpenGov issues.  Basically it’s an aggregated news source on paper.li

Becoming Citizen 2.0: Step One, Consumer

What does it mean to be a consumer and why should anyone bother?

These are the first two questions that we, as Gov 2.0 advocates, should ask ourselves when exhorting our compatriots to take a more active role in their own governance.  The first question is easily answered: to be a consumer is the least time-consuming way to become involved in government.  It means that you read the information that government bodies publish with the goal of understanding three things:

Weekly Round-up - September 3, 2010

Here are the articles that caught our attention this week:

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

Of course, no one should miss my incredibly insightful and unfathomably well-written post "Meeting Half-way: Becoming Citizen 2.0."  But other people published material that you should read.  Check out:

Meeting half-way: Becoming Citizen 2.0

In 2005, William Eggers released a book titled "Government 2.0."  Its cover shows two parallel cables  sending information between them wirelessly.  Yes, parallel cables, and only 5 short years ago.

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