There’s the physical space of weSpace, the co-working hub we’re launching for entrepreneurs and digital creatives. There’s the social space where we connect innovators through technology, collaboration and creativity. And there’s the space between the ears where we consider our place in a shape-shifting world.

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Space matters. It can inspire people to do great things. To engage one-another. To think more deeply. To innovate and make a difference. Space inspires us.

But like great expectation, great space just doesn’t happen. It unfolds in time. “The future enters us slowly, as if to transform us, long before it happens,” the poet Ranier Marie Ilke counseled.

Space must be designed. Carefully, bit by bit. Steve Jobs put it this way: Design isn’t how it looks, it’s how it works.

We Media emerged a decade ago with a prescient and somewhat ominous (at least for some) design: Networked technology would enable everyone to set the agenda for what we know, how we work and how we live. In the world we designed in 2002, control shifted from traditional institutions to everyday people. Media was democratized; power flowed to citizens.

Many people see this as the Internet revolution. It is, but not the way they think. While the “digital everything” was the first law of We Media back in 2002, it was also a foreshadowing of a social revolution to come. The age of access that we saw coming a decade ago is patently obvious today as people everywhere design or redesign their place in a connected society. The implications for just about everything are profound.

Design sits atop our agenda for the visible future. It is the way we interact with the world. It’s how and what we see, how we organize thought, how we translate concepts to others, how we create, how we express ourselves. Design brings us closer to communion with the ineffable in a period of enlightened anxiety.

Watch this space.

1. Freeze flip-flops, walk the Mall until feet thaw.

2. Frozen ritas in the Metro Center ESPN Zone.

3. Turn the AC app on your iPad all the way up.

4. Duck boat tour with crash in the Potomac.

5. Movie at Iceplex 16: Cold Souls.

6. Speed Segway races down Capitol Hill.

7. Edit Flickr photos of February snowstorm.

8. Alaska cruise with Sarah Palin. Cold, very cold.

9. Hurl water balloons from top of Washington monument.

10. Cold showers with Michaela and Taraq Salahi.

Or you could chill with us from 3:30 to 6 pm on Saturday, August 7 at our Lake Anne meetup in Reston with the DC Area Online News Association Meetup Group: paddle-boat rides, WeSpace open house and picnic, Dale’s Pale Ale, and a salon on creativity at Cafe Montemartre.

Sound nice? Click for directions and to RSVP

“>

I am excited to announce the launch of a new project that we are calling WeThink.

What is it? WeThink is a conversation about innovation and the future — an effort to explore new ideas and promote solutions to the challenges that our society is facing.

What’s the big deal? If you follow our work here at all, you’ll know that We Media is a movement – a concept – that helps explain how we know what we know, who we trust, and how we learn. It’s about power of the community. We Media is part of the infinite quest to harness the power of media, communication and human ingenuity for common good. And, well, We Media changes everything.  We Media changes the way we innovate.  We Media changes how we create, sustain, and grow successful ventures. We Media enhances the structures, models and economies that support human communication, interaction and achievement.  And through that, We Media challenges us to review our existing ways of operating, break apart our established structures, and re-build our approach to the future.  These changes impact all of us, and they are forcing each of us to find new ways of thinking about… well, everything.

What are you talking about? I have this crazy idea that we need to re-think the way we create, support, and sustain ventures.  We need to re-think how we innovate.  What we are doing isn’t working anymore – not as well as it should – and we need to try something different.  That means re-considering what kinds of companies and organizations are needed today, in response to the massive changes we are seeing in our society as a result of the influence that technology and the internet are having on our culture.  That means re-structuring how ventures, both for-profit and social in nature, are funded and managed.  That means re-assessing what success looks like for new companies and organizations, as well as re-considering how we measure progress of existing organizations against our needs in society.  And that means re-building the whole infrastructure of innovation… from how we teach it, promote it, cover it in the media, what skills we value, who gets to serve as gatekeepers, and more.

How will it work? Over the next year we will collect and share new ideas, highlight different approaches, ask tough questions, and propose solutions. We will lead a new and different kind of discussion about innovation. Everywhere we go we will be looking for new issues to discuss and new ideas to consider.  Everyone we talk to or encounter is invited to contribute their experience or perspective to help power this effort.  And all those ideas and suggestions, approaches and solutions will be shared.  They’ll be posted online.  They’ll be open to feedback.  They’ll be mashed up with other thoughts.  At the end of a year, our plan is to pull together a ‘solutions book’ that helps to support, and sustain, a vibrant and game-changing discussion going forward.  The rest we will figure out as we go.

The first few ideas and questions will be posted in the next several days.  So, stay tuned — the fun is just beginning.

At We Media Miami, Chris will moderate a session on “Why Community Matters” with Ben Ilfeld of The Sacramento Press, C. Renzi Stone, from SaxumPR, and Anders Gyllenhaal, Executive Editor of the Miami Herald. I spoke with Chris last week and asked him to talk about the burning questions on his mind as he prepares for the upcoming conversations.

“When I think about ‘Community Matters’, it occurs to me that the question is what is the purpose of community? Is it to extol content for the community? Or is it to generate content that the community creates? And then, the larger question becomes how to monetize ‘community’? There are 2 billion users coming online in the next ten years. How do we monetize the value of their content? And, further, how do we deal with “truth” in community-generated journalism? On a community site, truth is subjective. Newspapers must be very cautious about libel issues, and objectionable content is muted. I’m a “freedom of speech” guy, and its cost is hate speech and libel, but I’m good with that because libel kills a free flowing debate. Journalists are fighting with one hand behind their backs. In a community-based media company, rather than “truth seeking”, there is “advocacy building.” I’m looking forward to having this conversation with my colleagues on our panel, some of whom are working for traditional news media. Should be an interesting debate!”

“Everything you thought you knew about media has changed,” we wrote in a report that followed the shootings at Virginia Tech. We called it “The Reckoning,” a moment when news moved into the hands of tech-enabled people who were directly impacted by it, and was spread through networks of friends and followers. As a result of this simple, new thing called “Twitter,” we forecast that news would never be the same.

That was in January 2007. Following initial resistance, virtually every news organization now uses Twitter to spread the news of its reporters — ironic because the SMS-based communications system is perceived by most news outlets as a threat. Now comes another reckoning. Twitter has developed a new way to find useful and relevant tweets by offering a refined version called “local trends”– lists of tweets bearing popular keywords.

The Twitter feature is reliant on the accurate location of a Twitterer. When current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge: everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses. The service is just now emerging. As in January 2007, the implications for traditional content providers seem apparent, particularly for local news sites that have scaled operations for hyper-local strategies.

Twitter has long offered users a list of marginally useful trending topics such as “Haiti” or “Super Bowl.” The topics are largely irrelevant, a cut above spam. But soon Twitter can suggest location-centric tweets. It can recommend whom you should follow based on geographic community, influence or affinity. Twitter’s value continues to expand as it becomes a personal source for local news and information, an alternative to institutional media.

Twitter is also working on improving its system for recommending what Twitterers follow. It has always suggested prominent Twitterers, but it recently launched a suggestions page using algorithms that identify clusters of people with similar interests.

The moves come as a new analysis shows that the number of Twitter users soared to about 75 million in December 2009 from fewer than five million one year earlier. Twitter emphasized its news and information network strategy in November 2009 by changing the question it asks users for status updates from “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?”

Since then, Twitter has been widely applied in campaigning, education, public relations, marketing, space exploration, surveying, and dissent. Research reported in New Scientist finds that instant messaging systems like Twitter now do a better job of disseminating information during emergencies than either traditional news media or government emergency services — a finding validated by events following the earthquake in Haiti.

A world of Twitter developers are at it again. Can incumbents react quickly and apply Twitter’s expanding portfolio of apps, tools and services? It has taken three years for the media formerly known as mainstream to reluctantly embrace the first wave of social media. Here comes the next wave.

“>

Both movements are being brought on by the great disruptor that is the Interwebs and both movements are faced with similar questions: What does it mean to have more participants? What value do those participants have and is the value of the original participant (journalist and public official) compromised by greater participation?

At the intersection of Gov and Media is Media’s responsibility to hold government accountable.  The way that responsibility is enacted shifts as Media is forced to be more resourceful and Gov is forced to be more transparent.  As the organism of traditional media is weekend financially by the growth of on-line news one of Journalism’s key functions, being a check on government,  faces a disruption as well. When more and more reporters are losing their jobs how can media properties maintain their function as a 4th branch of government?  Less Journalists means less people doing the investigation and collecting the news. This means that if media wants to continue to hold gov accountable they have to stay resourceful.

Below is a case study of how SeeClickFix is being used by Hyper Local Journalists to maintain their role in a Gov20 world.

Our Partner Doug Hardy, at the Journal Inquirer, has been using a SeeClickFix Pro account to acknowledge and track issues like speeding, downed power lines and unsafe pedestrian areas in the Hartford, CT region. Not only does the Journal Inquirer embed the SeeClickFix map, but Doug also follows up on issues himself and makes sure that they are being listened to by officials.

The Journal Inquirer introduced SeeClickFix to much of the Hartford region adding a layer of accountability to local gov that previously did not exist. Doug now uses the citizen reports to scoop stories on issues like traffic safety and other community concerns.

This kind of accountability has more back-up than a pen and a delivery route though. Doug’s new posse is a crowd of users that can speak and vote publicly on the issues he is reporting. Doug can not only report on the issue but he can display the raw data of citizen voices on SeeClickFix.

In East Hartford, CT it appears that this new form of accountability is quite effective at creating fixes. Doug was kind enough to let me post his article(The Journal Inquirer is participating in another experiment: a Paywall) on East Hartford and SeeClickFix below.

SEECLICKFIX: Problems getting solved in East Hartford
By Doug Hardy
Journal Inquirer
Published: Monday, October 26, 2009 11:52 AM EDT
Some good things have been happening as a result of your reports on the SeeClickFix portion of the Journal Inquirer’s Web site. Three issues have been solved recently in East Hartford, where Mayor Melody A. Currey and public works personnel have taken an active approach and decided to monitor SeeClickFix for your reports. This is a good thing for everyone, as you’ll see below.

“EH Citizen” reported that there has been a deer crossing sign covered in graffiti for more than five years on Oak Street near Farnham Drive.

“It’s an eyesore and you can’t even see the photo on the sign in an area where deer often cross to access Porter Brook. Is this fixable?” EH Citizen wrote, adding that the town had been notified years ago but the sign had yet to be scrubbed clean or replaced.

Fortunately, the East Hartford Public Works Department has built its own watch area on SeeClickFix — which you also can do for free if you want to get involved in solving problems in your community. Within 15 days of reporting the graffiti online, EH Citizen returned and posted this message: “Thanks so much this issue has been fixed. The sign was replaced and looks great now! Thank you!”

You can thank East Hartford for being on the ball. We didn’t need to ask on your behalf. Meanwhile, across town at Main Street and Silver Lane, the pedestrian crossing signal was reported to be too fast, leaving slow-moving folks at risk.

“For pedestrians and bicyclists crossing Main Street at Silver Lane, the time from when the icon turns white and the audible beep starts is barely 10 seconds,” ROC wrote. “This is a wide street, and even on a bike you barely make it. This traffic light should be lengthened so people can cross without fearing for their lives. It’s called a crosswalk for a reason, should favor the crosser.”

After suggesting that the state Department of Transportation be contacted directly, within about a month ROC reported that the signal time had been lengthened appropriately. Kudos for your effort, ROC.

A third issue that was closed in East Hartford was reported by Bob Hobbs — a dead tree was menacing the power lines on Bodwell Road near Burnside Avenue. He provided a photo. Hobbs posted the issue directly on East Hartford’s Web site — which is always advisable if you want anything to get done — and got a response from Public Works Director Billy G. Taylor:

“The tree is privately owned,” Taylor wrote. “Consequently, the town cannot simply lawfully remove it. Under authority given to me by town ordinances, I sent a letter to the owner of record ordering the tree’s removal. The letter has just been returned by the USPS marked ‘undeliverable.’ Having never removed a tree on private property without delivering the owner the notice required by ordinance, I do not know what authority I have to remove it. In any case, the Public Works budget is insufficient to allow removal of trees on private property and I do not have the authority under the town charter to overexpend the budget.”

So no progress there. Town records list three names on the property card, but I was told all three were renters.

Then we got some help from Jon Searles, an East Hartford resident whose brainflation.wordpress.com blog describes him as both a concerned citizen and chairman of the 6th District Committee of the East Hartford Republican Town Committee. He also is a Town Council candidate in the municipal election.

Searles either reported the tree directly to Connecticut Light & Power himself or he found an existing report. He provided a report number for CL&P’s Web site, and we then found that the utility company visited in September and noted that the tree was “overhanging the lines,” But the report then said, “RESOLUTION — No Trouble Found.”

Based on that, it didn’t look like CL&P was going to take action.

But about two weeks ago — and after more than 20 comments and e-mails between residents, town officials, and myself — Hobbs reported that the tree had been cut back and the lines were no longer threatened.

Somone had taken it upon themselves to chop off the top of the dead tree. Whoever you are, thanks for helping to improve the community.

Doug Hardy is an associate editor of the Journal Inquirer. He can be reached at dhardy (at)journalinquirer.com or 860-646-0500, ext. 305.
This is a true testimony to the magic of a system that allows for open communication and collaborative problem solving around public concerns. You can really see how media, industry, government and private citizens can work together to improve their communities:

WeMedia conducts regular regular podcasts that feature in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news. Our goal is to help the WeMedia community understand the roots of the changes taking place in our society, hear from the thinkers and doers who are on the front lines, really understand the difficulties facing the media, consumers, and others — all while being somewhat entertaining.

Today’s podcast features a conversation with Melinda Wittstock, the Bureau Chief, Founder and Executive Director of Capitol News Connection – a news organization that covers political issues with a focus on how they play locally (CNC has more correspondents covering Capitol Hill each day than any other national news organization, and produces most of its content for distribution through public radio stations nationwide). She is also the creator of AskYourLawmaker.org, a project/site that allows citizens to post conversations directly to their lawmakers, and have CNC journalists help track down responses. Melinda is a life-long journalist and has some strong views about what the media is doing well, and where improvements are needed. We agreed, for example, that good, timely, relevant content is critical to the success of the news media – and also missing from much of the newspaper and similar coverage today. We also talked about what responsibility the media might has when it comes to facilitating action or enabling citizens to get more involved and the benefits of hyper-local news content and focus.

Click below to listen.

We are hoping to get back on track with weekly/regular podcast discussions shortly. Let us know if you have suggestions for people we should talk with or topics we should cover. And if you want to participate in one of our podcasts or discussions, just let us know.

Here is what I wrote:

I have come to the conclusion that most (maybe all) business and strategy books are useless. They over-generalize. They offer little value. I go in with such high expectations, based on reviews and descriptions, and am almost universally disappointed.

For a project that I am working on, I want to be find the business and strategy books that do help, that really deliver value.  I want to find the must reads.

I want books that offer guidance and support on how to start and run a effective businesses and organizations.  I’m looking for authors who really understand how to change people’s minds or understand their behavior.  I know there must be a book out there that can help me (and others) to be organized and efficient, creative, and successful. And of course, I want to find a book that offers really good advice on how to break through and make a difference/impact in today’s connected society.

I have been trying for years, with nothing to show for it.  So now, I am asking for help.

If you are an author, a publisher, or just a reader — you can help.  Read the full post and send me your suggestions.  C’mon WeMedia community, this seems right up your alley.

I will share everything that people send me and try, through my blogging and other outreach, to help others figure out what to read. So please, help me find the must reads.

“Czerina explained that believes in the power of giving people a voice, and that this is essential to making democracies work.

When we meet at We Media Miami 2009, her project reminded me of how many people and communities need to express by themselves in Latin America; they need a voice in their efforts to built a democratic world.

<embed src=”http://blip.tv/play/AfCbBYuMRQ” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”320″ height=”270″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed> 

Beginning today, however, the price of cigarettes is going to jump, significantly, as the new federal cigarette tax goes into effect.  The tax, which President Obama signed in February, will raise the tax on tobacco products from 39 cents a pack to $1.01.  As many as a dozen states are consider additional taxes as well, to help generate much needed income.  Before the tax hike, cigarette prices averaged about $5 a pack.  While some tobacco companies will absorb part of the tax to offset increases, prices across the board will go up.  As the prices go up, the number of people who smoke is expected to go down — significantly.

So what?

The health risks associated with smoking are widely known – and yet apparently aren’t compelling enough to compel the last 20% of Americans to kick the habit.  A simple tax, however, will push people past that tipping point.  What’s the lesson here?

Behavior change is tough, but necessary if you want to have a real impact.  Quitting smoking is a significant change someone’s life.  Could you give up something that is a regular part of your day — never eat breakfast again, or never turn on your television?  For smokers, beginning the process of quitting is not that difficult – most smokers say they have tried to quit, but couldn’t follow through.  Those who do quit, and stay that way, acknowledge that many aspects of their life change, not just the fact that they no longer light up.

Along the same lines, the holy grail of organizing – community, political or otherwise – is getting people to take action.  All the better if that action is directed towards some specific action that helps you meet your goals, and therefore becomes both meaningful and measurable.  Getting someone to act once is easy — its getting them to act a second time, and beyond, that is really tough.  To get people to take action, you have to make it easy for them to act, give them some direction and support, and make sure the incentive is clear (see next point).  But even that isn’t enough sometimes.

And that is why this tobacco tax provides an important lesson for us all.

Smokers are fully aware of the health risks associated with cigarettes, and all the other negative social aspects as well.  For those who continue to smoke, none of these reasons are compelling enough so that someone will commit to kicking the habit.  But when you add on a significant financial penalty for continuing to smoke, people’s resolve to quit grows much stronger, much faster.

Will that lesson translate to behavior change in other areas?  I don’t know.

My experience in organizing suggests that there are limitations to people’s commitment to action, no matter how compelling the issue or sophisticated the tool set we provide to support them.  I have been a part of hundreds of campaigns over the years, about a wide range of issues, and never been able to move a significant number of people to a new set of behaviors.  I can get people to click on something or sign a petition, show up for an event, or maybe call their elected officials and advocate for a cause… once.  The more times you ask, the lower the rate of participation becomes (and no, a financial incentive nor a penalty, have proven to be enough).  In the digital age, organizations so often push tools as the solution to major challenges, but that seems to me to get us further away from uncovering the real solution.

I am thinking about this challenge while watching Organizing for America (OFA) try to mobilize the public to support President Obama’s budget.  According to an article in Congress Daily, the campaign is not having much of an impact.  I’m not surprised. OFA seems to be using the same playbook they did during the Obama campaign — take a big list, email it asking for help, direct and facilitate action, and hope for a great response.  Governing is not campaigning, and urging the passage of a huge budget package is not as compelling as helping to elect a truly transformational candidate.  I think OFA will have to re-think the strategy for how they educate, engage, and mobilize people around these types of big policy challenges — and my gut says the centerpiece of the effort won’t be a media/promotional effort, but rather something much more community driven (I wrote about this for the WeMedia conference, FYI).

I have never smoked a cigarette in my life — haven’t taken so much as a drag.  I think its a disgusting habit which has the added benefit of causing any number of life-shortening health problems.  Further, I have never understood why people start smoking or why, knowing that cigarettes can/will kill you, they don’t stop (and yes, I understand that cigarettes are addictive, that nicotine makes you feel energized and alert, that peer pressure plays a big role, along with family history, education level and income, and of course, the process of quitting can be very difficult).  I’m not some crazy anti-smoking advocate either — though I do think our society would probably be better off without people lighting up everywhere.   I am curious though.  I want to understand what really drives people to smoke, and what drives people to stop smoking — and how that might translate to everything else.  The shift in our society’s behavior that results from this tobacco tax, no matter what it is, will yield some important lessons.  I can’t wait to see what they are.

We’ll be checking in here frequently, but here’s an update on new features, new relationships, and ways you can help spread the clicking.

___New Features____
*Mobile Web Version
Use
SeeClickFix from your smart phone and experience the new mobile phone
optimized version.  We can’t wait to get your feedback.  There’s
nothing like reporting your issue on the go.

*Photo Gallery
Ever
wondered what’s going on across the world on SeeClickFix.  In addition
to the activity feeds, you can now review all photos published in our
Photo Gallery at http://www.seeclickfix.com/gallery.  I love it.

*Issues Page New Look with Facebook Share
Each
Clicket now as an issue home page which lists nearby activity and top
local issues.  Let us know what you think.  Notice you can now share an
issue with your friends on Facebook, too.

*Watch Area Landing Page

Similarly, each SeeFix watch area has a home page.  Let’s you know what’s going on nearby geographically.

*SeeClickFix for Your Site
Now it is even easier to build
SeeClickFix into your website with either an embeddable web widget or an
RSS feed.  Learn all about it at http://www.seeclickfix.com/widget.

*Feedback via Get Satisfaction
There
is now a SeeClickFix for SeeClickFix.  You can publicly post feedback
on the site and discuss it with other community members.  Watch for
the Feedback blue tab on the right-hand side of your browser.

___SeeClickFix News____
*Mayoral Candidate Endorsement
York, PA, has a Mayoral candidate who has embraced SeeClickFix see
http://blog.seeclickfix.com/2009/03/mayoral-candidate-in-york-pa-runs-with.html.

*Lot’s of Media Websites
SeeClickFix is a part of Boston Globe, New York Times and Philly.com
websites along with many others.  Check out the blog to learn more
details.

*Police and Crime Attention
In our home town, New Haven, we’re
seeing a lot of interaction between the police and the community around
drugs and traffic.  See
http://blog.seeclickfix.com/2009/03/heroin-dealer-busted-on-leads-from.html
and http://blog.seeclickfix.com/2009/03/operation-clickfix.html.

How you can Help Spread the word and keep up to date.

Become a SideClick:

-Sign-up at http://www.seeclickfix.com/become_a_sideclick

*Stay in Touch – Read Our Blog or this Blog
We’ve been posting lots of new stuff to http://blog.seeclickfix.com.  Check it out once a week and/or add to your RSS reader.

*Refer a Friend
Tell
your friends about SeeClickFix.  In fact, forward them this email?  Or
send them over to http://www.seeclickfix.com/helps/show/3 to learn more.

*Become Our Facebook Fan
We’re
moving from the Facebook group to a Facebook page.  What’s the
difference?  Who knows, but that’s what Facebook wants.  Please become
a fan at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SeeClickFix/78040287852.

A few things have marked the Game Changers, based both on our case studies and some observations at the conference Wednesday:

1. Ignite the Spark of Motivation. Inspire people. SocialVibe, a Game Changer, showed a video with excited participants from their community saying things like “I helped build a well in Kenya,” and constantly talked about how powerful they felt by being able to make contributions through charity just by writing content and posting SocialVibe’s advertising widget.
2. Crowd Forging. Not only asking questions, and suggesting people come, but actually bringing them together, getting them to give their greatest assets: Time, Money, Passion, Energy. Shape a crowd, as much as assemble it. Listen to what it wants, and give the people more of it. (Corollary: It’s not about the technology. It’s the people, stupid.)
3. The ability to do good while also making money. Holding both capitalist and social ideas in their heads (and their business models) at the same time.
4. Play. Or, in the words of We Media co-founder Dale Peskin, “Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the industrial age.”
5. It has to be more than “lipstick on a bulldog.” Don’t just repackage an old idea.
6. Get in the game. Just do it. Don’t argue about the rules, the procedures, all the points. Game Changer Ze Frank brought us that one: “Sometimes what we do with all the media at our disposal is argue about the rules of the game, rather than play it.”

Hope that helps. (And for your copy editory types: yes, I know the bullets aren’t in parallel construction. So be it.)

And, yet, it’s a time of incredible creative foment, when tools of creation, distribution and connection — and the ability to make money from it all — have been given to more of us than ever. When multi-billion-dollar companies can be created in a few years on the back of a search algorithm or by using the Web’s distributive power to sell books and the Kindle electronic book reader. When solo bloggers can make fine livings with nothing more than a laptop, energy and a few writing and coding skills. And connections  the technology gives us all the ability to make. (Witness Ushahidi’s ability to save lives using open-source tools avaialble to all)

Last night at the We Media conference opening reception, I asked keynoter John Zogby, the noted pollster (who was flogging his new book , “The Way We’ll Be”), about this dissonance, about what he finds in his survey of America, this odd mix of hype and near-hysteria about the economic downturn against the more than half-full part of the glass I also see.

He, like many , cited Schumpeter’s creative destruction. And he said that while the American people get it (they have adjusted to lower pay and expectations, and realize what’s happening, and have been realizing it lo these past 15 years), it seems our institutions haven’t, that they don’t realize what’s happening to them. (That in a way is a quick definition of Schumpeter’s thesis: that the big don’t get it and fall as the upstarts come in to disrupt them.) He also framed much of his remarks  in terms of his findings that apparently form the foundation of his book: 18-29 year-olds are part of a new, international world citizenry, more interested in making friends and connection via interest than geography, able to travel widely and easily, expecting to have 10 or more places of employment in their lives, expecting to feel personally empowerd.

It is odd, though, that the institutions are ultimately a combine of the people who presumably “get” what Zogby says they do. Zogby and We conducted a poll that supports the assertion of distrust in institutions: “Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the leadership currently provided by large companies, government and traditional media – and they are not confident the leadership from these groups will improve in the future.”  The poll found much more confidence in small business, entrepreneurship and science. In the words of We Media co-founder Andrew Nachison, it’s “a historic, global shift in human behavior and organization. A new era.”

(An aside: I remember the feeling of disorientation I felt in 1997 in Hong Kong, having gone there for Handover of the territory back to China from Britain. It was early days of the Web. I was the founding international producer of ABCNEWS.com, and was there on my first international assignment for the site. It was me, my camera, and a reporter’s notebook, shooting video of artists, dissidents, shoppers, businesspeople, politicians, and putting it up for all to see, combined with a bunch of writing and still photos. Total cost: airfare, hotel room, and some telecommunications and videotape. In the hotel, the news anchors like Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel had taken over a floor, running thick cable, established large editing suites and lit studios, spending, I would guess, hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together their broadcasts. Of course, the order of magnitude was incomparable, as was the quality. But I felt, then, the beginnings of a gulf between the solo and institutional practitioner — even though I was part of the institution — that is now coming home to roost more strongly.)

It appears that Congress has finally reached an agreement on the economic stimulus bill.  I am told this is great news.  I hope you will forgive me for not being confident that this package will re-start the economy and achieve all the results that have been promised.  All you have to do is look at the process that went in to making up the deal to see that the next steps are going to be challenging.

Don’t get me wrong, I support the idea of a stimulus package.  I believe that the President is doing everything he knows how to do to get the country back on track and that is economic team, which includes some of the smartest minds in the world, have crafted a strategy that they believe will work.  Congress is doing what it always does, fighting over details and trying to protect their own interests — but even in this case, they haven’t done too much to muck up the plan (aside from cutting the funding for the arts, education, and similar projects that were likely to have a great impact on the economy and society as a whole – but I’ll save that rant for another post, another time).

What I don’t have confidence in is our ability to execute.

Massive amounts of money are going to be handed out all across the country – and if history dictates, that money will be wasted, mis-applied, or in some cases not even spent.  Thousands of ‘shovel-ready’ projects are going to begin, some within days or weeks.  Checks are going to arrive in people’s mailboxes within months.  But the President isn’t going to convene a conference call each morning to make sure that all the Governors are prioritizing the right transportation and infrastructure projects.  The treasury department isn’t going to put together a Microsoft Project plan to make sure all the funds are used efficiently.  Members of Congress aren’t going to spend time meeting with project leaders to help them think through different challenges and how to overcome them.  Nobody is going to sit at my kitchen table and help me decide whether to buy a new flat screen television (to pump money back into the economy) or put the check in my bank account (because I don’t have confidence that things won’t get worse before they get better).

For the stimulus to succeed, we need great project managers.  For America’s economy to get back on track, we need operationally-minded people who can take a good plan and ensure that it is put into action in an organized, and effective way.  We need them at the state level.  We need them on every project that gets green-lighted as a result of this new funding.  We need them in every American family, so those hard-working Americans can make an informed decision about whether the tax break they receive should be spent, or saved, or invested.  From experience, I know there is a shortage of people who can make sure the execution of a project goes smoothly.  Recent history, with the bank bailout – and, well, just about every government program we have seen in the past several decades – would suggest there will be major hiccups, no matter how good the stimulus plan is.

As a result, no, I am not confident in our ability to use the $798 billion dollars that Congress will approve as a part of this stimulus plan effectively.

So here is a thought… in a connected society, when we have tools that allow people to share ideas and coordinate efforts – what if we manage the stimulus rollout?  If we believe so strongly that the community has capabilities that the institutions of power do not possess, then why don’t we take ownership over the fixing of our nation?  We’ll still need leadership from the President, oversight from the Treasury department, and bloviating from Congress to guide and direct us on what, at a macro level, is likely to have the greatest impact.  But why should we expect politicians and government bureaucrats to know how to build roads, fix schools, when they know nothing about that work?  Why should we expect the President and Congress to help us make smart choices about how to balance our checkbook when they can’t balance the nation’s?  When it comes to the details, we should be in charge.

Planning is easy. Execution is hard. The people are available and the skills exist across the country to make sure that stimulus money is applied well and the projects run smoothly.  But the systems we are using to manage these efforts are old, and outdated.  The tools exist, and are being used every day to innovate the way we address social issues, build businesses, and bring communities together around shared interests.  But the understanding, knowledge, and comfort with those tools in the leadership positions that will determine how the stimulus money is spent is sorely lacking.

The keys to a successfully stimulating the economy of the nation will be found in the details.  And the community should own the details.