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If I Had My Way |
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Date: Monday, October 04, 2010 Subject: Empower I - Introduction The cat is out of the bag -- so to speak. We have gone full circle in my life time -- from "Great Depression" to "Great Recession" -- or whatever you might want to call it. The point is -- we are in the middle of a life altering adjustment -- full blown chaos. But it is really quite simple, if and when you stop to think about it. Technology has opened Pandora's Box -- by creating the means for two-way communication, the Personal Computer and the Internet -- technology has given us the tools necessary to "Empower the People". It would have been better, had the leaders of this revolution been a bit less selfish and a bit more mature and recognized the need for a less disruptive introduction. That, of course, is hindsight and very easy to see from this view point. What we are seeing are the machinations of a mass of people, learning to deal with this new found power. The early adopters have dominated the scene so-far, giving us the Web and it's neutered version of "Social Network" -- however, here is the real problem. So many people have been so successful (financially) that we are failing to see the long term potential that is being subverted. The people responsible for informing "the people" have failed to do their job -- they are so involved in the process that they don't even want to talk about the truth of the situation. Yes, I am talking about the media -- AKA: The Press, remember their Constitutional charter. And, it would be nice if we could find a leader that understood what was happening -- we thought that we had one in Barack Obama. But, no -- so far those that saw him as an opportunist were right. Obama was elected to "fix the problems" caused by the George W. Bush administration -- and, so far, he has only made them worse. The pundits are predicting dire results for the 2010 election with the likelyhood of termination of his tenure in 2012. Of course, he could wake up -- and see the writing on the wall. "The People" will learn to use this new found power -- that is the meaning of "crowd wisdom." It may be messy, with it's fits and starts -- but the people will eventually win out. In other words -- the pendulum swings both ways. Somebody once defined a good leader as one that observes where the people are going and then gets out in front. My purpose for writing this is to point where I think that the people are going -- and help smooth the process, if I can. To be continued (I hope) BTW, in hopes of exciting some discussion I am
posting this page on the following web sites. Thanks for your time, Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com
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