Opengov dreams that do not die out

Two weeks ago, I traveled to Strasbourg, France, to meet the Edgeryders team, a new project run by the Social Cohesion Research and Development Division of the Council of Europe, with financial support from the European Commission. I am very pleased and honored to be part of this team.

I’m not a European, but my vision extends to Francophonie, and beyond.

I ‘shared my ryde’ (I told my personal and professional story) at Edgeryders, since it is through the eyes of citizens that these government agencies wish to understand what is important to European youth (and not so young people as well). From this information, the Council of Europe will seek solutions to help youth overcome adversity (particularly with regard to unemployment). Thus, this is how should be an open government: listen, show a genuine interest in what is proposed by the citizens, and use this information (the creation of knowledge) to improve public policy.

At Edgeryders, I talked about my open government dream, because this is what has concerned me for several years, enough to have spent much of my time and my energy to try to achieve this ideal. To date, no Francophone country in the world truly adopted an open government policy. None have succeeded in applying the fundamentals of this philosophy (transparency, participation and collaboration).

My opengov dreams are still alive, although what I proposed, the Open Government and Francophonie project, has not come to life yet. When something inside drives you with such intensity, nothing and no one, can destroy it. While government authorities have rejected the ideas I proposed, these ideas were not destroyed. They continue to exist somewhere in me, and in other people as well.

At Edgeryders, I shared the details of a project that does not exist yet. Maybe it will, at one point. It is not real for now, but it has gravitated inside me, and in other people, for more than a year.

These ideas are not just mine, they belong to the community.

By sharing my story at Edgeryders, I met on my way a philosopher. A special type of philosopher: an experimental philosopher. Last week, with Michel Filippi, a discussion took shape, about leadership and open government models. This kind of discussion has never taken place yet in the Francophone world (and probably beyond): I was happy to see it take shape in a place like Edgeryders.

Michel Filippi also shared his story at Edgeryders. Thus, I learned that he is good at creating relationships between things and people, he excels at making models. He pointed to an article by Karl Dubost, dating from 1999, entitled “Semantic proximity”:

"Let the form of action emerge, rather than model the action of the form."

This sentence has been floating in my mind for several days. I was wondering how I would shape a collective Edgeryders mission in connection with open government issues. This sentence comes to me at the perfect timing, as a gift. Thanks Michel Filippi!

I invite those who have open government dreams, like me, and also those who are concerned about the future of our society, to share their story at Edgeryders, and join in discussions, missions, and campaigns, as we weave together valuable information knowledge over the upcoming months.

Hi, I’m into this thinking, lets share. A take on things that I really appreciate rings truest through a bit of Chinese philosophy I found one day in Zhang Diang’s 33 concepts of Chinese philosophy. The concept was accommodation and there was a quote from an old master, Confucius or LAo or Chuang or Sun, I can’t remember, but it stated that governance was ‘not achieved through the imposition of one’s will on the people but rather in accommodating the people in what they do naturally of themselves.’ This forms the groundwork of a society based in bottom up self-organizational policy. Like your philosopher friend told you: “Let the form of action emerge, rather than model the action of the form.” One little project I worked on was setting up a youth cafe for my home town. It was a response to the ‘trend’ or youth suicide in the town. The act becomes symbolic of a certain reponse to a certain situation in the life of the youth and can go pandemic, as it does in Birr, every few years. In any case the urge to do something went out on facebook and recieved over 2000 supporters in just one week. The town only has 4000 living in it. For me the true meaning of ‘liberation technology’ had never rang truer. Give a voice to the people and they will tell you what needs to be done. Many people think of a country’s primary natural resources as being comprised of gas and oil and other raw materials, the truth however is that the primary natural resource of a country is its people’s creative will. Unleash this and the country will prosper, supress it and a few will gain while the rest suffer. Making this clear to the people is not so difficult. To get a power holder/addict to acquiesce to the development of a situation in which his percieved power is diminished is a hard sell by comparison. The move toward e-government will be best made through independent and unaffiliated socio-political channels. Save ranting away, I’ll wait to hear from you. I will happily give al of what I have learned for the forging of a naturalised system of governance. This current jibe can’t go on. All of the very best, Eimhin

Eimihin, share thoughts is what we do. :slight_smile:

I suggest we do it on the platform rather than the blog (http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int) . Many more people will be exposed to your story there.