LEADERSHIP 2.0?
Coro Center Executive Director Jeff Sosnaud and Finance and Development Director Patrick O'Heffernan met recently with Steve Wright, Director of Innovation for the Salesforce.com Foundation. Salesforce.com sells the world's most popular customer relations management service (CRM), service, used by both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Jeff and Patrick visited to discuss ideas for the Fellows Program in Public Affairs Innovation Week scheduled for February 2008. The conversation quickly turned to what is civic engagement in a Web 2.0 world – "Web 2.0" in this case standing for the combination of web-based social-networking sites, wikis and other host services which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users, and rich media sites like podcasts and RSS feeds and online video posting and editing.
Web 2.0 has impacted electoral politics, through "gotcha" videos such as the "Macaca Moment" video on YouTube and other sites that ended Senator George Allen's career, online small donor fund raising that now rivals money from lobbyists and "fat cats", and online organizations such as the environmental site, Care2.org, which enables 7.7 million people - over 2% of the U.S. population – to organize social and political campaigns on behalf of the environment.
Wright pointed out that for the daily civic engagement of citizens in their community, whether they perceive it to be their school district or the global environment, three things are important:
- data transparency: that the peoples' data are transparent and accessible -- except for some exceptions in national security and personal privacy areas --what the government does and the records it keeps should be readily available online to the citizenry
- data accessibility: that not only is the data available, but that it is in standard formats that enable any citizen to download it, analyze and use it.
- information literacy: that all citizens have basic knowledge in how to find, access and download the peoples' data.
When asked about the custom of most citizens relying on experts who understand the topic and how to read and use the data, Steve agreed that experts and their expertise are important. But he added, so is the wisdom of the crowd. If you make the peoples data available only to experts, you will miss out on the creative power of ordinary people who can bring new insights and understandings that experts, because they are focused, cannot see. He argued for a combination of the wisdom of the crowd and expertise.
If Wright is right that civic engagement in a 21st century Web 2.0 world is trending toward a combination of the wisdom of the crowd and the wisdom of experts, is there a Leadership 2.0 requirement emerging and what does it mean for the qualities and skills that make up a leader?
Does a Web 2.0 world mean that a leader needs to be proficient not only with the tools of analytic thinking, research, presentation, public speaking, negotiation, but with a whole new set of tools ranging from social entrepreneurship to posting YouTube videos? How does a leader in a Web 2.0 World use the "wisdom of the crowd" while still creating a coherent vision for people to follow? How does a Web 2.0 leader foster open decision making and decentralized authority and inspire people to a common goal? And, finally, what does this mean for
The conversation at Salesforce.com's conference room that day ranged from the need to keep the leadership tools of the past because they are still necessary and still have impact, to how to add new ones that embrace an online and open source world. Wright argued that leaders need the kinds of tools Coro teaches, plus an understanding of the laws governing information, an understanding of the technologies of open source and social networking, plus how to get things done in this environment.
What do you think? Log on and comment.
6 comments:
This may be the central question for leaders over the next deacde or two. The internet and globalization have blured the lines between local, state, national and global and it has given leaders the power to impact communities far beyond their neighborhoods. The current presidential campaign and he rise of online organizations are all evidence of a web 2.0 community in need of web 2.0 leaders.
These trends play to Coro's strengths in public service, offering experiences that show how to harness “the power of us” before that became a popular term..
Coro could continue to facilitate the experiences where often extremely unlike people become unlikely allies - on one interest. Transparence assists and pressures people know that their actions could become widely known. And that's one of the classic reinforcers of civil civic engagement.
I would not want to give the impression that I think web 2.0 is, in any way, an answer. I believe that democracy is an answer. We cannot have a viable democracy without informed citizens.
Our media infrastructure, or more broadly, our information processing infrastructure dictates not just an expert and a consumer but also a centralized medium for transferring information. What Web 2.0 and Peer to Peer tools allow US to do is to interact, to redefine, or define dynamically, who is an expert and when they displaying expertise.
If the only message that our "leaders" get is that they need to have greater facility with web technology, then nothing changes. However, if our leaders take the more radical approach of expressing faith in those that they are to lead and work to find the most effective tools to engage and interact with individuals and groups honestly while recognizing gray areas and searching for answers, then we have something interesting.
It is worth pointing out that those who own the central, information transmitting medium, are not interested in losing their very privledge position in the equation. This is the real reason why the Recording Industry is suing children for hundreds of thousands of dollars for steeling songs. This is why Comcast recently blocked all BitTorrent traffic. this is why Network Neutrality is critical to our struggling democracy.
A Great Book: The Wealth Of Networks by Yochai Benkler
Steve's point that it is the messengers and the message, not the transmission system, is right on. His point about the holders of teh transmission systems abusing the messengers is also right on - and disappointing. One could argue that in a web 2.0 world, net neutrality is necessary for democracy.
This "conversation" about transparancy and facilitating citizen engagement involving "data" -- especially, but not exclusively through the internet -- comes just as I am writing a community outreach proposal for a Bay Area public agency. It's sparked some thoughts on how to frame our recommendations about engaging the community in dealing with some tough realities. Thanks. Pam Jones
www.Policypitch.com is a new social action platform that provides the tools for individual citizens to pitch and promote their ideas for neighborhood and local change.
Policypitch.com is a great example of how web 2.0 is increasing civic engagement and improving the democratic process.
Post a Comment