I want to find a way to personally get involved to improve change.gov. Just jumping into the site itself doesn’t seem to cut it for me. Submitting through the contact form doesn’t feel satisfying either. I want to engage more fully.
I’m not star-struck by change.gov. Yes, the team is iterating quickly, doing good technical work, and rightfully impressing some people. Their progress is incredible by government standards. Let’s give them credit for that. But change.gov should also measure itself according to a broader perspective. The team behind change.gov should challenge itself by asking “What is possible in the field of online participation?”
The field of online participation is relatively young. I’m not sure that anyone who watches this space really knows what is possible. So I don’t think we know what the “bar” for achievement should be. Randy Pausch probably said it best: “You obviously don’t know where the bar should be, and you’re only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere.”*
I’ve got questions about the big picture of change.gov, where it is going, how internal decisions get made, and what organizational capacity backs it up. You can see some in my prior blog post. Every question seems to lead to another.
Asking these questions comes naturally to me, but I also want to:
1. Find out the answers to my questions
2. Find out if change.gov is asking these questions of themselves
3. If not, find a way to bring up the questions to the change.gov team
How can I accomplish these goals? Here are some ways:
1. Write. Blog. Tweet. Argue. Persuade.
I’ve done some of this and could do lots more. I’ve got all kinds of energy and ideas pent up. You can get a small dose if you follow coinsight (my account for Collective Insight LLC) on twitter.
That said, writing is only the beginning. I don’t think I’m going to be satisfied unless I can convert these rants into action!
2. Put pressure on change.gov to improve.
Perhaps I could join forces with an organization that can help. This is a good idea in theory, but I’m not sure that I’m going to find an organization that is ready to ask the tough questions and apply the kind of pressure I’m talking about.
To the average bystander, change.gov is kicking butt: why criticize something that is working just fine?
On the other hand, those who are tuned into e-government, online participation, and wisdom of the crowds see the imperfections in change.gov. Despite this, I suspect that these mavens are quite pleased with the progress so far. They are hanging back and holding back their criticism. For now.
I must admit that I don’t just want to criticize for its own sake. I want to engage in a discussion for the sake of improvement. I want to criticize because it is the first step to rethink, restructure, and rebuild.
3. “Work around” the problems of change.gov.
It is possible that I could find ways to improve change.gov indirectly. For example, I could build a companion Web site — perhaps it could screen-scrape to get the underlying data from change.gov and package up that information in a more usable way. The Sunlight Foundation is an inspiration in this regard — checkout their post about Opening Your Seat at the Table.
I like this approach, but it has some limitations:
1. You have to work hard to get traffic and attention to the companion Web site
2. It is a second-best use of resources (it is inefficient)
3. The companion site may be brittle (a change to the original Web site can break the interconnections)
4. Join the change.gov team.
This would be awesome. It is easy to be an armchair quarterback, but there is nothing like being on the actual team. Sitting down and understanding the vision and constraints that the change.gov team faces would be eye-opening.
Now I just need to figure out how to make it happen! If you have suggestions, please let me know.
Perhaps my chances are unlikely. Still, I’m confident that my background and experience would be useful to the team. You can find my professional details, including my resume, over on my personal Web site.
Notes
* You can get the back-story about the Randy Pausch quote by watching watching his last lecture.