The Wired Government of the Future

While the American conservative movement howls and spits in a Tea Party-inspired rage, British conservatives are quietly rebuilding their party as the party of the networked age. This morning, the U.K.'s likely next Prime Minister, conservative David Cameron, made a surprise appearance at TED via simulcast from London to explain what this could mean.

Cameron started by stating that the central question of the 21st century is not "What is the role of government?" but, rather, "How do we built a better society under the weight of crushing debt?" Cameron's starting point is that there simply isn't going to be more money to spend on problems, so everything has to be reinvented to be smarter.

His answer to this problem connects what he calls the traditional conservative platform -- placing individuals at the center of the decision-making chain -- with the new power of open information. His message was that now, more than ever, governments have the ability to be more transparent and more accountable, and that this puts more power in the hands of people to be in change of their government's shape.

He pointed to the examples of places in the United States, for example, that list contract details with the U.S. government, as well as crime reporting sites in cities like Chicago. Another example he could have pointed to (but didn't) is San Francisco's application platform, which gives local developers the ability to mash up all sorts of different data types and make them more accessible.

I have mixed feelings about Cameron and his presentation. On the one hand, I was and am incredibly excited to see a major political figure connecting the power of open information to the power of more decision-making power in the hands of people. I hope Cameron becomes a model for American conservatives to ditch the Palin absurdity and actually offer a coherent philosophy and an action plan built on it.

Similarly, I believe deeply in the power of information to change behavior and expectations. My skepticism comes only in that I think information needs translation and design to be powerful. This is the central challenge for governments committed to more openness and transparency. I think San Francisco's model of trying to get developers to solve the problem, rather than trying to do it internally, is probably the right type of solution.

But when it comes to how far I can get behind Cameron, I'm stopped by my belief that conservatives have completely undermined their own articulation of individual liberty by their incredible capitulation to industry.

Conservatives, at least in America, can never -- in my opinion -- legitimately lay claim to the mantle of people power when their elected members' behavior suggests a near constant surrender to money and the influence of big industry. I am truly and deeply more terrified of military privatization, for example, than just about anything else we face.

To be fair, that problem is not just one of the conservative movement. It's a problem in large part of an electoral funding system in which politicians are constantly hungry for greater amounts of money to compete. I hope that new technological solutions can impact this problem, but I worry.

For those interested in such issues, I suggest checking out Lawrence Lessig (best known as a founder of Creative Commons) and his work to get money out of politics. You can also check out our Ideas for Change in America contest, in which a number of actions about ending 'corporate personhood' are among the top-ranked ideas.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum