Ameritocracy

Something is coming!

I’ve been feeling for a couple years now that something was rumbling between the internet and politics. At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco I wrote on my fill-in-the-blank tshirt (which began “Web 2.0 is __________”), “THE HORROR! Global Public Outrage is Coming!”. I was so excited, because for some reason I felt that the world was suddenly paying attention to the internet, and I realized that WE are the internet. I felt it might be the last frontier, and The People are gaining power and a voice on the wired.

I was overjoyed to see that the Manifesto for the Personal Democracy Forum has similar feelings:

“Democracy in America is changing.

A new force, rooted in new tools and practices built on and around the Internet, is rising alongside the old system of capital-intensive broadcast politics.

Today, for almost no money, anyone can be a reporter, a community organizer, an ad-maker, a publisher, a money-raiser, or a leader.

If what they have to say is compelling, it will spread.

The cost of finding like-minded souls, banding together, and speaking to the powerful has dropped to almost zero.

Networked voices are reviving the civic conversation.

More people, everyday, are discovering this new power. After years of being treated like passive subjects of marketing and manipulation, they want to be heard.

Members expect a say in the decision-making process of the organizations they join. Readers want to talk back to the news-makers. Citizens are insisting on more openness and transparency from government.

All the old institutions and players-big money, top-down parties, big-foot journalism, cloistered organizations-must adapt or face losing status and power.

Personal Democracy, where everyone is a full participant, is coming.

The Personal Democracy Forum is your place to meet the people who are making that change happen, discover the tools powering the new civic conversation, spot the early trends, and share in understanding and embracing this dynamic new force.”

Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen, or what’s going to change, if anything. But I’m darned curious, and darned excited to be a part of it, during what seems like “the crest of a high and beautiful wave”.

I just hope this time it doesn’t roll back.
{ Iris* }