Beth Novick, author of Wiki Government, says that today's technology invites us to "rethink not only our democratic institutions, but our democratic theory."
Novick, speaking at a Long Now Foundation event, said, "We now can choose from among thousands of different associations to which we want to contribute our time and money and attention, whether for a short or longer time. We can get involved in order to make change happen, to do stuff in the world in a kind of cosmopolitan pluralism. The Internet enables a new kind of equality of power that allows us to think about how we can reengineer our institutions - not simply for the sake of talk, but as a means to an end of achieving things in the world better, faster, and in new and creative ways to attack the complex problems that we confront."
Open government data is one way Novick sees we are on the path to a more democratic system that decentralizes the role of government.
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research