My presentation to the Mayor's Greensboro Ideas Forum:
So are you one of the many transportation planners, economic and community developers, business incubators and engineers the City of Greensboro hoped to attract with this project? Our Mayor billed it as something for the locals but the most recent media reports indicate differently. If you are then you probably don't know much about the real history of Greensboro and how efforts like this one have been used in the past to manipulate the voters into allowing themselves to take economic losses time and again.
If you're really interested in improving Greensboro you'll get in touch with Greensboro's working class before you submit ideas based on things that simply aren't true. For example: Greensboro's textile industry disappeared years ago so writing proposals around textiles won't get you very far. Of course to win you're going to have to submit ideas that meet the preconceived notions of economic development Greensboro leaders already have in mind. Our mayor has already given hints in public meetings so I guess you'll have to research him as well.
Closed governments are tools used by oppressive governments to keep wealth in the hands of relativity few. The tragedy of closed government is in that while it concentrates wealth and power it also stifles economic development. Economic development requires long term planning but when relatively few people have access to long term plans the masses are unable to make and adjust long term plans, thereby giving wealth and power to relatively few.
Amazing, while this concentration of wealth and power actually cripples both government and economic development, it is still the preferred form of government for most cities in America with almost every city in the nation chasing the same dreams and goals in fierce competition with one another for very limited rewards. Open government can and will change that and the first cities in America to adopt open government will be the biggest winners in the economic development game.
Next up: What is open government
What is open government? Wikipidia says open government is defined as: "Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight.[1] In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and other considerations, which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy. The origins of open government arguments can be dated to the time of the European Enlightenment: to debates about the proper construction of a then nascent democratic society."
We've little doubt that Greensboro, like every city in America, would like to make the claim that we already have open government but my friend Roch at http://roch101.blogspot.com/ can point you to dozens if not hundreds of documented incidents where Greensboro government has not been open by any stretch of the imagination.
So is the problem that our leaders don't want to be open? I hope not.
Leaders say there's not enough citizens in government. They're wrong. In Greensboro there are dozens of forums where citizens try to participate in government. Pols are either unplugged or unaware.
So how do we achieve open government? Simple, everyone in Greensboro shows up at every Greensboro City Council meeting and speaks their mind-- all 270,000 citizens...
What's that? No place to fit? What if we do it this way? What if we embark upon a plan, step by step to become the first city in America to bring about Open Source Government?
From Wikipedia: "Open-source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open source and open content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is democratically opened to the general citizenry, employing their collective wisdom to benefit the decision-making process and improve democracy."
Are there bold new leaders in Greensboro with vision enough to make Open Source Government happen here first? Or will Greensboro always be last in line?
