Brantford 2.0

The future leaders of our community have grown up in a world in which there has always been an Internet. So, too have future voters. Tech-savvy and sophisticated, this new generation is completely comfortable with online participation and collaboration and cannot conceive of a hierarchical and closed government that denies them a voice, an opinion, a say.

This generation will not patiently wait for one opportunity every four years to express their concerns, hopes, and ideas by checking a box in a voting booth with a No. 2 pencil. They expect to be consulted, to be involved in real-time, to be heard and surprisingly, to contribute.
Most importantly they expect to be able to do it all online.

Governments should not fear this paradigm shift but instead embrace it. The best place to make a difference is where government most often interacts with citizens, and 80% of the time this occurs at the municipal level.

In a world where we can trade derivatives on an iPhone, telecommute to work and even eFile our taxes, what can we accomplish online as a citizen of a city? Not much yet, but we’re beginning to imagine the possibilities and they are indeed boundless.

Like most cities in the world today, our municipal government’s “operating system,” let’s call it Brantford 1.0, was developed and installed during the Industrial Revolution and it’s due for an upgrade.

So what is a Brantford 2.0, anyway? Well first off, let’s deal with what it isn’t. It’s really not about technology! It’s not about having a Twitter account or a Facebook page and most of all, it’s not about politics. Call it what you will– e-government, Government 2.0, whatever — the idea is simply to leverage technology and citizen engagement to continuously innovate our local government to a new and better version.

A 2.0 world is coming and the evolution of government can no longer be the exclusive domain of the politician. It’s not simply an IT project, either, nor is it fair to task the tech folks with modernizing the very source code of democracy.

Rather than striking a task force or hiring a consultant to complete a paper-based master plan, why not crowd-source the solution using online tools and ask the actual users what they want, need and can imagine? Why not even ask them to help build it?

Citizen engagement is imperative for a successful upgrade, anyway.

If we citizens are willing and able to contribute to the future of our community, then why not empower us to do so? The debate regarding the Southside, attendance at various city-sponsored town halls and open houses, the conversations on Facebook and Twitter and most revealingly the number of candidates already declared for the fall election all indicate our citizens want to engage, be heard and make a difference. To borrow liberally from late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, “We’re from the electorate and we’re here to help!”

So how do we begin the upgrade to Brantford 2.0? Why not start by leveraging what we already have rather than completely rewriting? Take, for example, our current citizen committees: community- minded volunteers bring their expertise, experience and passion to the table to tackle municipal challenges and provide advice to council on such diverse topics as economic development and the control of vicious dogs.

Why not then establish a Brantford 2.0 or, at the very least, an e-government citizen advisory committee? It would be a good place to start and if nothing else I hope the idea can spark a valuable conversation and perhaps even give a few of the candidates something to Twitter about!

Kevin Magee is a 2.0 Citizen, capitalist, community builder and member of The Expositor’s Community Editorial Board.

Republished from the Brantford Expositor: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2642452

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