A review by jmanchester0
Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government by Gavin Newsom
5.0
Government right now is functioning on the cutting edge - of 1973.
Part of the point of this book is making government more participatory. To truly have a government for, by, and of the people. It‰ЫЄs going to take some work, because as my girlfriend wrote in the margin of this book, ‰ЫП[the government would] rather not know what we want so they can keep voting however they want.‰Ыќ They don‰ЫЄt really want our participation.
Well, too bad. They‰ЫЄre going to get it, if 2017-2018 is any indication.
This isn‰ЫЄt going to be easy. There are so many ways we are behind technologically - and they all connect to money and power. Politicians don‰ЫЄt want to give up their power, so they don‰ЫЄt want to change. Companies don‰ЫЄt want to give up their monopolies, so it‰ЫЄs harder to introduce things like city-wide free wifi or solar panels.
Oooh! How do we fix this:
Because the government doesn‰ЫЄt have an official PR department to help burnish its image, people go about their daily lives oblivious to how enriched they are by it.
This way:
Overcoming bureaucracy, updating the museum pieces of governance, revealing the real people who make up our government, restoring trust: technology can help us do all of these crucial things, if we allow ourselves to embrace it.
Some fantastic thinking about bringing our country into the digital age. Into the 21st Century. It seems like it‰ЫЄs about time.
We need to engage people in the democratic process. We need to reinvent government.
And this book offers quite a variety of solutions. From using apps to X Prizes, the author gives some excellent ideas to really make this a government of the people.
We need to work together and start implementing them.
Part of the point of this book is making government more participatory. To truly have a government for, by, and of the people. It‰ЫЄs going to take some work, because as my girlfriend wrote in the margin of this book, ‰ЫП[the government would] rather not know what we want so they can keep voting however they want.‰Ыќ They don‰ЫЄt really want our participation.
Well, too bad. They‰ЫЄre going to get it, if 2017-2018 is any indication.
This isn‰ЫЄt going to be easy. There are so many ways we are behind technologically - and they all connect to money and power. Politicians don‰ЫЄt want to give up their power, so they don‰ЫЄt want to change. Companies don‰ЫЄt want to give up their monopolies, so it‰ЫЄs harder to introduce things like city-wide free wifi or solar panels.
Oooh! How do we fix this:
Because the government doesn‰ЫЄt have an official PR department to help burnish its image, people go about their daily lives oblivious to how enriched they are by it.
This way:
Overcoming bureaucracy, updating the museum pieces of governance, revealing the real people who make up our government, restoring trust: technology can help us do all of these crucial things, if we allow ourselves to embrace it.
Some fantastic thinking about bringing our country into the digital age. Into the 21st Century. It seems like it‰ЫЄs about time.
We need to engage people in the democratic process. We need to reinvent government.
And this book offers quite a variety of solutions. From using apps to X Prizes, the author gives some excellent ideas to really make this a government of the people.
We need to work together and start implementing them.