Open Revolution #3

This the third blog I have written on the global 'Open Revolution'. As I have stated in the past, I believe we have moved into a century of massive, global collaboration, innovation, and 'open' solutions. There is a revolution taking place as we continue to move forward and embrace a wide range of open solutions in all sectors of the economy and our society. In education and publishing we are moving to open copyright, open access, open knowledge, and open journals. We're seeing collaborative and 'open' news organizations, religious, and political movements. In the high tech industry, open source systems and supportive communities are proliferating across the board. We are seeing an 'Open Revolution' breaking out on all fronts. We are seeing the successful strategies of global collaboration, open solutions, and innovation take hold and start to overwhelm current organizations and systems that are starting to fail.

The recent round of protest on Wall Street by our citizenry reflects the belief that our system of American checks and balances has been thoroughly trashed by the influence of big corporations and finance organizations that have made it impossible for the people's voice to be heard. Industry and the government leaders have created a 'closed system' that ignores the voice of the people. As a result, we are seeing the global 'Open Revolution' that started in the Middle East spreading to the west. It is now arriving on our shores. People are speaking up and beginning to take to the street and business and political leaders who have been selling out our country for their own greed need to be very wary. They also ought to remember that using their influence to have the police powers of the state used against the people, as they have many times in the past, never works over the long haul. It simply enflames the people and solidifies their positions.

Let me reiterate some of my previous observations on the topic of global collaboration and open solutions –

• There's no getting around it. The global 'Open Revolution' is well underway.
• Collaboration & open solutions are leading the way in this age of innovation and constant change.
• Unfortunately, many existing business & political systems have become self centered, destructive 'closed' communities.
• Billions of users of the Internet & mobile technologies are 'always on', accessing information and exchanging their views.
• There's a growing sense of political & economic disenfranchisement of billions of people around the world and across our own country – and these views are being voiced and exchanged.

Now, what does this all mean to us and our future? Where will this global 'Open Revolution' take us? Will the 'closed' system or community of existing business and political leaders be forced to change their behaviour? How do we harness the energy for 'constructive' purposes?