ePA - Week 1

First off let me start by saying that I am excited to be in this class and I am looking forward to working with the rest of you ePA students as we move through the semester together. Should not only be very informative but hopefully fun as well.

The actions for this week have been a much-needed kick in the pants to start exploring some of these new tools. I already had a Twitter account, but I can't say that I have been using it whole lot (haven't ever tweeted anything). Google+ looks to be a whole lot more user friendly than some other social networking sites, should be interesting to see how it works for this class. I'm also curious to see how well the combo of the wiki and individual blogs works for discussions and collaborations in this class. I have used Blackboard and Google docs for collaboration and discussions in other classes and have found them to be somewhat useful but limited in their ability to really foster the same sense of connection you get in face to face interactions. As for Foursquare, I earned a Newbie badge the other day for my first check-in. Woohoo! I will soon be mayor of Trader Joe's in Ahwatukee.

As I read the Malone chapters, I wanted to believe that the future he describes will result in positive change. My skeptical side, however, kept nagging me with two "yes, but" thoughts. First off, if power and/or decision making flows from the bottom of decentralized networks, having an educated workforce, with members who can think critically, analytically and creatively is extremely important (otherwise those at the bottom may make misguided, uninformed or just plain bad decisions). Assuming Malone is correct and we are increasingly moving to an economic model where such decentralized networks will be the norm, I fear that the workforce in this country will increasingly be shut out of such opportunities. Why? We live in a country that, in general, seriously undervalues education, especially the kind of education that teaches students to think critically and creatively. I hope I am wrong here.

The second "yes, but" thought I had began when I read Malone using the film industry as an example of a web of freelancers who can do something more effectively than a large company. Having worked in the film industry, I find this example slightly misleading. Yes, probably 95% of the people who work on a film are freelancers who move from film to film, and the same groups of people do not generally work on the same films over and over together (though people in certain departments, such as camera, editorial, lighting, etc, tend to work in teams that often work together from film to film). The workflow on a film, however, is one of the most hierarchical I have ever experienced, with power flowing down from the studio, to producers or to the director, to department heads and then to the various assistants in each department. As you travel down this hierarchy, discretion and control decrease dramatically. The studio is clearly located at the top of this hierarchy for one reason: resources (aka money).

Will large companies and their leaders (who currently control a lot of the world's resources) willingly give up control to those lower down on the food chain? Some might, if they feel it is likely to increase profits. But I have a feeling many others will resist such change because they will not see it as being in their interests. This is a thought I'd like to return to when we discuss the Lessig book (sorry, I have already begun reading it) as I believe he sheds light on just how such companies can resist decentralization using technology.

Once again, I hope I am wrong. I am a strong believer that people are much more motivated when they have more discretion and control in their work (I think Maslow's theories hold up quite well in the real world). More importantly, I think for those of us who are likely to end up working in government that the tide of decentralization is already flowing pretty strongly (especially via outsourcing/contracting out of government services) and will likely continue to do so as long as government resources are scarce. The real question I am left with - one that I hope this course will help me answer - is whether technology will allow for effective decentralization of power and decision-making in government, such that we can better meet the constitutional ideal of government power flowing from the people.