New York, NY – A 1,000 hungry people gathered this past week at the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) in New York. Hungry for knowledge and thirsty for action, they spent the two days embroiled in a conversation. A conversation about fast changing technology and slow moving politics. PDF is the preeminent gathering to focus on the intersection of technology and politics. PDF is the annual feeding ground for change makers.
I was fortunate enough to attend the forum in my capacity as a Summer Associate at the US Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence Energy and Environmental Security Directorate. Yeah, it’s a mouthful, chew it over once or twice.
There are too many panels and presentations and discussions and breakouts to summarize. But some themes continue to resonate. Firstly, there was a continuos, and somewhat tedious, drone about Twitter. Twitter has come of age and, like it or not, learn how to use it. End of story.
Some of the most striking and important comments came from government officials, seriously. That alone is an indicator of change. The Obama administration has put good and, more importantly, effective people in place. These are people that know how to get things done. To that end, they are taking risks, experimenting, and working very quickly to change how fundamental aspects of government work. Capturing this sentiment was Blair Levin of the FCC. He’s in charge of coordinating the development of the National Broadband Plan. “Our job is to produce a plan not a report,” he said. This distinction is critical. signifies great progress in government, a report does not catalyze action, a plan does.
Beth Noveck, deputy US chief technology officer for open government and author of the book Wiki Government, emphasized the entrepreneurial attitude of the administration. “Perfection is the enemy of good,” she said, paraphrasing Voltaire in her address. Her guiding principle is to take a set of ideals and make them real, to create a space for the public voice and, perhaps most importantly, a system for these ideas to reach decision makers.
