Government Needs Smart-sourcing, Not Crowdsourcing | techPresident – Clay Shirky, while in London last month promoting the release of Here Comes Everybody in paperback, said the following: “All the rhetoric, including – I’m embarrassed to say – some of mine, has assumed in the past that democratic legitimation is itself enough to regard aggregate public opinion [online] as being clearly binding on the government. I’ve changed my mind.”
G20: Tom Watson MP – Watch the short youtube film from Lloyd davis where Tom Watson explains why the G20 matters and why it’s important that bloggers were given access to the conference.
It’s a simple question, I’m trying to figure out if it has a simple answer. One of my fellow g20voice bloggers Richard Murphy knows his stuff and consciously uses his blog to campaign for reform of Tax Havens. Is it interesting or important that a blogger like Richard gets to ask questions at a summit like G20. Has anything changed?
Wonderful video of Simon Berry rather nervously showing Bob Geldof his colalife carton. Slow-ish start but please keep watching, it turns into two dads talking about condoms.
Find the original film here. Update – for Lloyd’s view of the same please click this link.
These are my links for March 29th through March 31st:
The fundamental media bias | The Democratic Society – " “narrative bias” – the fact that newspapers favour reportage that create narratives over stories that are factual. The strong narrative line is that we’re in a uniformly disastrous situation, and the PM, or Obama, or whoever, can personally shift the global economy for good or ill. The weak narrative line – as ever – is that it’s very complicated and hard to read the signs "
The power of serendipitous findability and the end of bullshit – "Why am I more optimistic now than at any time in my life? Because I think we’ve never had such good small-group making tools or such good information-connecting tools. We’re developing a global social nervous system. As a result, I think bull-shit is in trouble.
And it’s all because of serendipitous findability—the odds that you will fortuitously connect with someone you don’t know but share an interest with, or the odds that you will learn something timely or surprising or valuable to you."
Matt Lock Commissioning for Attention Part 1 – Read Me! « TEST – "‘commissioning for attention’, a phrase I’ve been using for a while to describe what I do at Channel 4 Education. I hate phrases like ‘360 content’ or ‘multiplatform’, as these encourage people to get hung up on technology or to have a box-ticking mentality to where ideas can exist, rather than really focusing on users and understanding what they’re doing."
Wirearchy · Hierarchy is a Prosthesis for Trust … – Just to quite: :We are increasingly using attraction and negotiation to arrive at what needs doing, by whom, for when and with what. Many (but certainly not all) areas of economic and societal activity still operate with traditional hierarchy, and more and more often the trust it offered or symbolised is being betrayed in order to serve the interests of those who hold the power. History suggests that 1) it has ever been thus, but / and that 2) when practiced to excess, dire consequences eventuate."
"2. Create from relevance. Engage kids in ways that have relevance to them, and you’ll capture their attention and imagination. Allow them to experience the concepts you’re teaching firsthand, and then discuss them (or, better yet, work to address them!) instead of relying on explanation alone.
3. Stop calling them “soft” skills. Talents such as creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy, and adaptability are not just nice to have; they’re the core capabilities of a 21st-century global economy facing complex challenges.""
