June 9, 2008

By Mike Stone

It sounds like a utopia: a society where citizens collaborate freely and overcome the limitations of monolithic bureaucracy and top-down government.

This "Connected Republic" view of the world, however, is now close to becoming a reality in many parts of the work thanks to new technologies, according to a white paper published by the Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the global strategic consulting arm of Cisco®.

It states that the possibilities of the Connected Republic go beyond e-government's original goal of improved service delivery and could even herald an age of democratic renewal, where it is the people, not bureaucracies, that call the shots.

The Connected Republic 2.0 shows how network technology is already persuading governments and their departments to become more responsive, flexible and accountable. The technology that brought us Wikipedia, Amazon and Skype can also provide citizen empowerment.

To prove the point, IBSG cites a number of concrete examples where modern communication technology is 'enabling the edge'-in other words, allowing those normally outside the official hierarchies to take control of, and contribute to, issues that affect their lives.

In the Philippines, for example, the country's 16 million mobile phone users are now able to report smoke-belching public buses and other vehicles via text messages.

These freelance environmental protection officers can also send Short Message Service messages to seek emergency assistance and report wrongdoing by police officers.

Similarly, the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, is using Cisco Unified Communications to make it easier for citizens to report potholes, 176,000 of which have been repaired since 2005.

Then there is the United Kingdom, where a Fix My Street service allows people to report graffiti, litter, defective street-lighting and a dozen other urban ills to the local council. It also lets site visitors follow the progress of the problem and the performance of the responsible agency.

Across the Atlantic, Change.org has been produced by a group of friends interested in positive social transformation. The site provides resources to concerned citizens, publicizes events and lends a hand to fund-raising.

These examples collectively show how mobile telephony, the Internet and social networking Websites can have a positive impact on society, above and beyond the obvious benefits they provide.

Most tellingly, they are happening in the here and now, often without a big fanfare-and without any involvement of official government or corporate institutions.

The Connected Republic is a model that invites citizens and public sector to change the way people think about technology, society and government.

It replaces a rigid, top-down, unidirectional model of communication between the centers of power and the public with a multitude of two-way conversations.

In the same way that the highly interactive Web 2.0 model is replacing broadcast media as the paradigm of choice, a new generation of technologically savvy citizens is refusing to be passive, isolated consumers of media. Instead, they are active participants.

Cisco IBSG's Paul Johnston, who co-authored the paper with Martin Stewart-Weeks, says: "This 'Power of Us' poses a great challenge for the public sector. Put simply, the institutions whose role is to serve society will need to play catch-up if they are to remain relevant."

Cisco IBSG highlights three principles that public sector bodies will need to follow in order to do so:

• They should take a platform approach and maximize the number of people and organizations that can collaborate to create public value.
• They should "empower the edge" so that frontline organizations and workers have the freedom they need to deliver locally appropriate solutions.
• They should tap into this social revolution by harnessing the power of the citizenry-"Us"-to create knowledge, solve problems and deliver better services.

This may seem a tall order for some organizations. And quite apart from the technical issues, there are several potential pitfalls along the path toward the Connected Republic.

Ensuring people's privacy is obviously a central issue. Creating effective identity management systems is another, as is securing the torrents of data moving across the network.

From a political point of view, protecting the freedom of people to make choices for themselves and their families are all issues that need to be high on the policy agenda.

So, too, is the concern about closing gaps in education, resources and skills that, left unattended, will result in disconnected communities and a loss of social cohesion, as the technological "haves" participate in, and shape, a society-to the exclusion of the digital "have nots".

But despite these obstacles, the future of the Connected Republic seems full of promise. The network, says Johnston, will take center stage to become the platform for productivity, social inclusion and community.

"Profound transformation and system change must take place," states Johnston. "It will take time, careful investment and sustained leadership, but it is essential if institutions are to maximize the public value they deliver to citizens and create the Connected Republic."

Mike Stone is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.