[LINK] An open letter to Obama, in support of social participation

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

An open letter to Obama, in support of social participation
Aug 05, 2009
http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/08/03/Commentary-Shneiderman-letter-to-Obama.aspx?p=1

On the 70th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s letter to President 
Franklin Roosevelt encouraging attention to atomic technology and 
science, Ben Shneiderman, a computer science professor at the University 
of Maryland, and several colleagues decided to offer a new version. The 
following is an open letter to President Barack Obama encouraging 
exploration of technology-mediated social participation.

August 2nd, 2009
Barack Obama
President of the United States
White House
Washington, D.C.

Sir:

Some recent work by entrepreneurs and researchers leads us to expect 
that technology-mediated social participation may be turned into a new 
and important force in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the 
situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action 
on the part of the administration. We believe, therefore, that it is our 
duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations.

In the course of the last few years, it has been made probable through 
the work of innovators in North America, Europe and Asia to set up 
technology-mediated social participation systems, by which vast amounts 
of human resources and large quantities of social benefit would be 
generated.Technology-mediated social participation is generated when 
social networking tools (such as Facebook), blogs and microblogs 
(Twitter), user-generated content sites (YouTube), discussion groups, 
problem reporting, recommendation systems, and other social media are 
applied to national priorities such as health, energy, education, 
disaster response, environmental protection or community safety.

As examples, AmberAlert <http://www.amberalert.gov/> has more than 7 
million users who help with information on child abduction, earthquake, 
fire, or storm reporting sites, providing information to emergency 
services, and the site serve.gov <http://www.serve.gov/> enables 
citizens to offer their service to national parks, museums and other 
institutions.

This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of social 
participation tools, and it is conceivable -- though much less certain 
-- that extremely powerful collaborations of this type may thus be 
constructed. A single collaboration of this type, promoted by the 
Internet and mobile devices, might very well revive the economy of whole 
cities and regions. Other applications might enable efficient citizen 
reporting during disasters, support rapid health care information 
dissemination during pandemics, generate a wealth of expert guidance on 
government issues, and promote widespread community or national service. 
The lessons of history teach us that any potent technology can have 
negative outcomes, so careful attention is needed to anticipate and 
minimize these dangers.

In view of this situation, you may think it desirable to have some 
permanent contact maintained between the administration and the 
entrepreneurs and researchers working on technology-enabled human chain 
reactions in America. One possible way of achieving this might be for 
you to entrust the task to a person who has your confidence and who 
could perhaps serve in an unofficial capacity. This person’s task might 
comprise the following:

a) To approach government departments, keep them informed of the further 
development, and put forward recommendations for government action, 
giving particular attention to the problem of constructing effective 
technology-mediated social participation for the United States.

b) To speed up the experimental work, which is at present being carried 
on within the limits of the budgets of university laboratories and 
entrepreneurs, by providing funds, if such funds are required, and 
perhaps also by obtaining cooperation of industrial laboratories that 
have necessary experience.

While some companies have gained widespread publicity and active use of 
their technology, the application of technology-mediated social 
participation for national priorities is in its infancy. Applications 
such as health care, energy efficiency, education, environmental 
preservation, business innovation and disaster response could bring 
substantial benefits to the United States.

Yours very truly,

Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland
Jennifer Preece, University of Maryland
Peter Pirolli, Palo Alto Research Center
Marc A. Smith, Telligent Corp
Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina
Jonathan Lazar, Towson University

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au