Symbolic Move towards Open Government, Now Let’s Get on With It

In Vancouver this weekend at our Biennial Convention, the Liberal Party of Canada will most likely adopt a Weighted, One Member, One Vote system for electing our future leaders of the Party.

It will be disappointing if the motion does not pass on many levels.

Since 2004, when broadband connectivity overtook slower connections for the first time in North America, we have experienced a giant shift in the scale of an individual’s ability to project their opinions through online forms of social networking and social media.

The Reform and Conservative parties were motivated to change the relationship that they had with individual members in advance of this shift.  They could no longer afford to maintain the distance between MPs & their staff, party organisers, former Senators and ex officios running the party and members who are paying for it. They were primarily motivated by fund raising.

Now Liberals have this same motive, plus, undeniable trends in individual empowerment which are attributable to:

- a tripling of bandwidth every six months,
- mobility (i.e. portable computing power & connectivity through smart phones & ultra light weight laptops), and,
- integration of GPS (anyone can use an iPhone application that uses GPS to help us listen to and connect with local twitter users).

Some perceive adopting the forms of organization and communications that are designed to cope with these trends as a potential loss of control and a threat the Party status quo.

The truth is that the methods to adapt to these irreversible changes in broadband connectivity, mobility and integration of GPS are not the threat or the source of loss of control.  In fact, just the opposite …

The underlying trends of broadband connectivity, mobility and GPS integration are the source of loss of control.  The only way to manage in this new context is to adopt new forms of organisation and communications that are designed for the new scale of individual influence.

One Member, One Vote is a fundamental shift in the right direction but in my view it is more symbolic than anything else.

It is more important that we recognize that all of our institutions … corporations, government and the Liberal Party are changing to adjust to the new architecture required by individuals who have a different scale of power and influence.  This not my idea. It is known as the Canon of Proportions and was first articulated by a Roman architect and then depicted in a diagram 1500 years later by a guy named Da Vinci.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg

This is not theoretical mumbo jumbo.

The reality is that individual roles in leadership (power and politics) can no longer be reduced to a vote every few years.  Hard wiring constant engagement and empowerment of our members and Canadians into our systems is critical to developing, delivering and defending success.

If we do not accept this at our core, then we will experience instability both within our party and in any government that we may form.

Head on over to www.changecamp.ca to read up on the kinds of issues that will become part of the mainstream debate and Liberals have a chance to lead on.

Can you imaging Harper winning on the issue of “open government”?