Is Britain ready for the networked society?

November 2nd, 2009

The economist wrote an article called The Great Giveaway in which it takes a critical look at the decentralising of government into the shires. Local decision making gets passed down from central government to local government.

A great deal of this thinking they say comes from both Conservatives and Labour Blairites. And much though has gone into social welfare etc., And recently we are starting to see experimentation with engagement, co-creation and a networked approach to getting stuff done.

The Economist argues that though this is good stuff – it hardly deals with the fiscal deficit. However in my post on big pharma and how one can unleash innovation, creativity and commercial success I argued that a networked approach to these challenges could be highly beneficial for the economy. As did John Martin. Equally in looking at innovation in manufacturing and engineering and (here) there are clear signposts for speeding up innovation for commercial success and to create jobs by approaching the problem from a networked perspective? But it requires a decoupling from tooling big, and closed knowledge systems. It requires funding, but it can also be more flexible and more lightweight. Something that I am exploring in The No Straight Lines project.

I do think that concerns raised about the apathy of Britons to become more engaged are valid – but then I also see that the current process does engender proper engagement in public life, and I also think that many are missing the real opportunity of the networked society – just look at the Digital Britain report. A plumbers guide for what could have been something more vital.

However, the Economist concludes

Despite the flaws in giving power away—its tentativeness in some areas, its optimistic assumptions in others—Westminster may not have seen as interesting an intellectual movement since the 1970s, when a few poky think-tanks harboured the early stirrings of what would become Thatcherism. It goes with the grain of Britain’s ornery zeitgeist, with its antipathy to politicians. The fruits of the project may take decades to come, but politicians are more often accused of excessive short-termism. The Tories’ policy wonks now travel the world to study real-life examples of power-spreading. In the coming years, if they get their way, Britain itself will be the laboratory for these ideas.

Networked economics

Networked society

Reboot Britain

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