Washington 2.0: Citizenship 2.0?

"Over the last two years, the Obama campaign built another "Wikipedia" of citizenship."

This quote is from today's WashingtonPost feature by Danielle Allen.

There is a lot of discussion these days about how the Founding Fathers would feel about the way the country is being run. One thing is for sure...they would probably fit in better with the Obama camp. As Danielle writes: "But the Internet has eradicated barriers of geography, enabling much more effective factional organization than the Founders could have imagined." Did they imagine citizenship would reach this level of participation? Call it Wikipolitics, call it crowd sourcing, sharing, e-shouting, call if whatever you like. One thing is becoming clear, it is not just a passing phase with politicos.

Just the other day I got a note on the progress of the Grassroots Inaugural Ball that is being thrown in DC the night before the inauguration. I have to say I was impressed. It is no small task to raise at least $75K to rent out the Ronald Reagan Building Ballroom, throw a huge party and then head to camp out on the mall at the crack of dawn. These people are dedicated, and I applaud them. The only way we are going to keep this progress going is to stay involved and demand good governance.

As Danielle states, "Now, however, we are at a turning point. We've finally reached something of a left-right equilibrium in the dramatic restructuring of the public sphere that has been underway for the past decade. Against this background, on Nov. 4 the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to supporters from the president-elect signaling aspirations to convert the campaign's success with social networking technologies into a tool not merely for winning but for good governance."

Good governance comes with transparency, lessening the digital divide and rewarding involvement by the everyday citizen. Grassroots is a word that has been revived in our vocabularly. Let's keep it alive and well.