I'm Back! And With a Whole New ... President

I should by all rights apologize for my extended holiday hiatus. I'm sorry. Good, now that's over with. What I really want to write about is Obama—He (arguably) crowdsourced his campaign. He indisputably crowdfunded it. And by all indications, he's intent on creating a crowdsourced government. Or put another way, he wants to put the participation back into "participatory democracy."

But that'll hold for a few days. First I want to report on my inaugural. Everyone's got a story, even if it just involves sitting around the TV with friends and family cackling at Rick Warren. Here's mine:

Last week we discovered that my wife's uncle, a pollster who worked with Obama from the beginning of the campaign, could score us tickets to the ceremony and one of the balls. I actually debated not going, but decided on Friday to buy one of the last fares on Amtrack and take the train to DC. Smart—when it comes to the Bos-Wash corridor, trains kill planes. I arrived at 9:25 AM Tuesday morning. Dumb. Most people with tickets—and even those without them—had started queing up by 6 AM. I wound up getting within sight of the Mall by 10:45. This would be plenty of time, if several hundred thousand people weren't separating me from my proper gate. I had a silver ticket, but was forced into the two-acre rugby scrum by the purple gate. Here was my view of the proceedings:

There was an upside to this: I wound up being part of the first official scandal of the Obama administration—the Purple Ticket Controversy. Turns out thousands of people with even better tickets than mine were turned away from the inauguration. Arriving so late, I probably earned my seat. But most of the purple ticket holders had been waiting—in a tunnel—since 6 AM. And they still didn't get in. Luckily, Senator Diane Feinstein is going to convene an investigation. Because, you know, Congress isn't busy these days with stimulus packages and ethics reform. For what it's worth Senator, I had a dandy time with the plebes outside the gates.

My evening was more successful. I had a ticket to the Obama Homestate Ball. The food was crapulous and the drinks were expensive, but the view of the royal couple, er, I mean the President and the First Lady couldn't be beat.

And the companionship was even better: I got to hang out with Unks and his crew. They're a lot like any group of colleagues who've spent two years working days and nights together—except these folks are about to fill the West Wing. It was educational: They're just like us, except really, really powerful. And, it must be said, very cool, just like The One. Obviously, a lot of my questions revolved around whether the administration would follow through on its promise to involve stakeholders and constituents in substantive policy formation, which is to say, bring the crowd into governing. The answer, unequivocally expressed, was yes. With a caveat: The citizens have to want to be involved, and, to put it in Barackian terms, reach for the hand extended out to them. That story's just begun, and we'll be chronicling it here.

Comments

[Jason]

Glad to have you back.

[Erica Grigg]

Jeff,

Thanks very much for keeping up with your blog. I'm a big fan!

As a social entrepreneur and sustainability marketer, I'm blogging about using new media tools to crowdsource for both business and sustainability purposes. I've seen the success of CarrotMobs in New York City and London and have heard of (and seen on youtube) massive flashmobs across the world.

Might you be able to give me a few sentences for my blog about what you think the future of crowdsourcing might look like?

Thank you very much in advance,
Erica Grigg

[ahmedalaa]

thanks for your tobic ..

best regaards ..

....................................
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[Tabish Bhimani]

quite a trip eh, Jeff? I'm really glad you got some personal time considering you've been so swamped. And it's good to see the radio silence go away for a while :)

Cheers buddy.

[Jim Bennette]

In Peter Kollocks study of human contributions to online communities in The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace, he points out that Web 2.0 did not invent anything. Rather, Web 2.0 simply made possible what people wanted to do anyway.

When I think about President Obama's approach to his campaign he really created Election 2.0 where it was the first time people could get involved with him if only indirectly via crowdsourcing. Similarly in his campaign he made possible what people wanted to do anyway; have a say in the country's outcome. The result was President Obama was able to ensure that his campaign appealed to his followers.

Now it is time for Presidency 2.0 where we use crowdsourcing to help re-shape our nation. We are still far from the finish line but at least we are in the race!

I for one am very excited.

TheCrowd is gathering.........

[thenugame]

Good!!

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[Margarida Cardoso]

I think we all have to admire American people, because in the middle of the worst crisis you sure managed to find the best choice for President. And you're obviously happy about that! Congratulations!

[Drew Bachman]

Jeff:

While I was reading the Wall Street Journal article Wall Street Criticizes 'Bad Bank' this morning, it occurred to me that another opportunity for the Obama administration to employ crowdsourcing would be to assist in the valuation of mortgage pools as part of the financial bailout package. Specifically, one of the problems faced by the markets is that determining the value of these pools is very difficult due in part to uncertainty regarding the repayment risk of the individual mortgages making up the pool. These pools, as I understand it, could be comprised of hundreds of separate loans from borrowers across the country. Some of the mortgages are more risky (e.g., those used to purchase speculative properties, or used by individual families to purchase a more expensive house than they could afford) and some are less risky (e.g., those used by very conservative families with secure jobs to buy a modest residence). Making sense of each separate situations, once they are pooled together and sliced into traunches would be an enormous undertaking. That is where crowdsourcing would come in.

Similar to the virtual markets you discuss in Crowdsourcing that were used to value presidential candidates or Hollywood projects, a mortgage virtual market could be used to "value" the individual mortgages that are pooled to formed these mortgage backed securities. Putting the obvious privacy issues aside for a moment, individual participants in the market could bid (or short) individual mortgages based on their individual knowledge (local knowledge) of the mortgage. Like the armature astronomers who use a few minutes or a few hours to map craters on Mars, individual participants spending relatively little time could pretty quickly "value" all the mortgages. The crowd's opinions on the individual mortgages could then be aggregated to estimate the value of the mortgage pools comprising those mortgages.

If there were a way to manage the privacy issues, the crowd might be a effective tool for making sense of the mortgage mess.

[kaleb]

GPS navigation devices from Garmin are well-known. The brand has already created its own distinct identity in this sphere. More recently, the company has directed its endeavours towards the sat nav devices that can be used in cars. The designs of these devices are slick and sophisticated. The screens are large and clear. The quality of the in-built loud speakers leaves little more to be desired. And the features are excellent, to say the least.

[watzabatza]

i like the way they dance... a dance of triumph... i hope Obama can handle many issues and crisis he face today.

[moving boxes]

I love this video.
President Obama is so down to earth.

[kraloyun]

GPS navigation devices from Garmin are well-known. The brand has already created its own distinct identity in this sphere. More recently, the company has directed its endeavours towards the sat nav devices that can be used in cars. The designs of these devices are slick and sophisticated. The screens are large and clear. The quality of the in-built loud speakers leaves little more to be desired. And the features are excellent, to say the least.