Don't get me wrong... change.gov represents a sea-change in government as usual. It's vibrant, exciting and inspiring - the very antithesis of institutional. It seeks to be open and collaborative, soliciting people to share their stories about the campaign and Election Day and their vision for the future.
But there's a problem: under the very title of "Open Government", there is nothing "open". In order to submit a story or an idea, you have to give your identity (e-mail, name & zipcode). And then, when you actually submit your comments, it asks you to Load Your Contacts from your Email Account and spam your friends to submit their comments to change.gov.
Why does change.gov need to know who I am for me to submit an idea? What is change.gov going to do with all of my contacts? Where is my idea or story going to end-up?
If I sound like a conspiracy theorist, it's probably because it's getting late into the night and I'm a bit punchy. However, this example just illustrates how identity and transparency are going to rear their heads as we try to figure out how to use the web and social technologies to help govern this land.
Campaigning and governing are different. In a campaign, people identify themselves with a candidate (much like you identify yourself with a cause). But in day-to-day governing, the unidentified and unidentifiable are important too.
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