The Digital Brainstorm

Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, describes a process he calls the digital brainstorm in a recent article:

Here’s how it would work. The president would say, “We’re going to have a national discussion on revitalizing our cities. It starts on Monday at noon and ends the same week on Friday at noon. Anyone can participate through the Web 2.0 discussion community we’ve set up. If you don’t have Internet access, I’ve partnered with corporations, schools, libraries, community computing centers, and shopping malls to give you access. We’ll post background papers. We’ll organize the discussion by region and also by interest groups. There will be a business discussion, a discussion of public transit users, and so on. As you participate in the discussion rate the ideas that you come across and the best ideas will rise to the top. I’ll participate daily and give my views. At the end of the process we’ll explore our options for further action.”

The goal is to have a conversation in which people become engaged in political life; think about issues; get active in improving their communities; and mobilize society for positive change. Politicians and citizens alike would become more informed and learn from each other. And collectively we would take a step away from broadcast and toward participatory democracy. As an exercise in government 2.0, it could show that power can be exercised through people, not over people.

This is very similar to how we see DeepDebate and other Web 2.0 tools being employed on a large scale.  A key element is ensuring the conversation is also available to people who are not able to be online; an exclusionary conversation simply cannot be called a national conversation.  Both online and offline methods have their advantages and disadvantages; a hybrid model can be far more effective than the sum of its parts.

Tags: national dialogue, WhiteHouse.Gov