Influencing the political process for advancment of technology
When I look at issues like Net Neutrality, a largely fabricated issue, I can’t help but observe (again) the serious disconnect between the two groups I’ll refer to as the Bellheads and the Netheads. The Bellheads are winning by the way. Sure the Netheads creat cool startups and think they’re making lots of money, but their revenues are generally peanuts to the Bellheads.
Need an example? Think about IM in the context of what it reall is…delivering text messages. How much revenue do you think the Netheads make from IM? Combine AIM, MSN and Yahoo all together. How much revenue do you think the wireless carriers make from text messagin? Who wins the revenue war?
That isn’t the only place the Bellheads win. Look to political process. I’ve often wondered about our own ranks. Jeff Pulver. David Isenberg. Tom Evslin. Several others. Leading voices fighting the battle from without rather than stepping into the political fray of politics to redirect the system from within. If we’re going to win some measure of control away from the Bellheads, there is only one way. The political power base needs to shift. Netheads have to become the influencers of policy, something we are clearly not today.
One way to do this is for many of use to run for office. To shift from the things we love to the things we want changed. Most of us are loathe to do so. I know I have no interest in political office. My passion for change isn’t so great that I care to make that change.
I personally have taken a different path. The grow your own Senator approach. My oldest son has intense political interests. He’s also in a different generation than I. The next generation of influencers. The next generation of leaders. The next generation of Senators. He doesn’t often talk of his personal politcal aspirations, but down inside, I know they exist. I do what I can to encourage that personal growth and pursuit of passion. And I try to help him bridge the gap to my generation by promoting new technologies and using technology from with the political process. For change. For new campaigns. For new public services. For good.
Today this appeared in the Daily Kos. Note this is a reference to my son, not to me -
Ken Camp’s The Revolution Has Begun looks at the use of newer technology - text messaging podcasts, etc. - in various campaigns.
I’d encourage the rest of you in my generation to chase your options. You can invest of yourself in making change, or you can foster change in the next generation of politics. Either will bring change. You can also blog about it, talk about it, post about it and whine about it. That will feel good perhaps, but it won’t bring change. Be an agent of change rather than a strident voice raging against the machine to no productive end.
This public service announcement brought to you by one too many cups of coffee after dinner.
Amended 15 minutes after I posted to add this link http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/25/233213/844
Technorati Tags: politics, Ken Camp, Net neutrality, be an agent of change
Written by on Julio 25th, 2006 with
comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and US News.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article
