Last Saturday I was speaking at the
Personal Democracy Forum in the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain. I met a lot of interesting people and learnt a lot, but I only started taking notes during the Final Plenary. Sitting in this panel was none less than
Esther Dyson (
@edyson). Wikipedia
describes her as a journalist and commentator on emerging digital technology, a founding member of the digerati, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist, but her Twitter bio simply states "Internet court jEsther". I can imagine her critical voice is a thorn in many people's side. The panel's audio
has been recorded by civico but here's a summary of her main points that day:
- Information isn't enough. You need courage to overcome bad things. The courage to say no and put others at risk.
- There are things you can no longer do once you're a government (and no longer just campaigning). There's a reason why governments are bureaucratic.
- Power corrupts. It also seduces. I've seen lots of people behave just as badly once they get the power. That distresses me. It's not good enough to change the government. People need to understand that they need to take an interest in what happens and demand transparancy. we need government, but also civil society
- Governments need to deliver, too. Sometimes people don't dare to ask for more after the elections. (Note: I had a feeling she was referring to Barack Obama here)
- We shouldn't always be suspicious of business. The business community can do a part of helping deliver. They too are part of civil society.
At one point she also snubbed at what she called "European Nationalism" because it wouldn't be any better than any other nationalism. One of the attendees explained the background of the European movement in the light of (at that time) largely U.S. and China focused international politics, and Esther Dyson was quick to admit she was wrong, and how this remark made her think differently about things.
Chic!
Finally she recommended
The Paradox of Choice - Why more is less by Barry Schwartz: "It's much harder to live in a free society, where you're held responsible for what changed. If it doesn't work it's their fault, so they resist this. They're
scared of freedom. So our role is to show them how to be succesful."
Viral phenomena are "objects or patterns able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them." But unfortunately the popularity of some internet memes sparks the ambition in some to "go viral" with their next campaign. Mostly because of all the bad reasons, like the illusion that "viral campaigns are cheaper".
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