Maximize impact of web technologies
With such a powerful tool in our hands, we might as well ensure that we apply it to the most important problems
The capacity of the web to disrupt all sorts of industries is truly fascinating. Such disruptions are often painful and difficult to accept for people who see their jobs disappear and replaced by some automation.
On the other hand,
- There is a real hope that computer and communication technology may help poor countries accelerate their development, while skipping some of the steps that rich countries slowly went through during the industrial and post-industrial revolution.
- Other than poverty, education is universally viewed as a top priority for all countries. Surprisingly, schools have been extremely resistant to change and the Internet revolution is just starting to operate. In this domain, the danger of lots of teachers jobs being lost seems relatively minimal. At the same time, the potential for improvement of the quality of education seems huge. We are starting very low... and so the potential for improvement is great.
- Open government is another domain where the disruption brought about by the web could have very positive effects. Strong efforts (data.gov, data.gov.uk) are done towards opening up government data, enabling a more active participation of the crowd to governmental decisions. With a better access to the data and a better understanding of how to look at it, the voice of the people will become more and more relevant. We'll probably still need to keep ministers and professional representatives to hold the keys of government, but hopefully we should get more authority over what they decide.