This short talk is about the thread that ties together open source software, web 2.0, and government: the power and importance of shared effort to solve hard problems. It is keyed off of a wonderful quote from the introduction Harlan Ellison wrote to his 1969 collection of short stories, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World. In it, Harlan talks about the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and ends with a stirring reminder that no one is going to come down off the hill to save us. We need to save ourselves.

1. Thinking Hard About the Future
Tim O’Reilly
July 21, 2010
OSCON

2. “I’m an inventor.
I became interested in
long term trends
because an invention
has to make sense in the
world in which it is
finished, not the world in
which it is started.”
-Ray Kurzweil

3. “The future is here.
It’s just not evenly
distributed yet.”
- William Gibson

4. Harlan Ellison

5. Text
http://visaocarioca.com.br/?p=4270

6. The Black Christ of Portobelo, Panama
(not the one Harlan Ellison saw in Rio, but you get the idea...)

7. “the bottom line of what I've rambled on about here...
[is] to tell you that as night approaches we are all
aliens, down here on this alien Earth. To tell you that
not Christ nor man nor governments of men will save
you. To tell you that writers about tomorrow must stop
living in yesterday and work from their hearts and their
guts and their courage to tell us about tomorrow,
before all the tomorrows are stolen away from us. To
tell you no one will come down from the mountain to
save your lily-white hide or your black ass. God is
within you. Save yourselves.
“Otherwise, why would you have traveled all this
way . . . just to be alone?”
--Harlan Ellison, Introduction

8. What’s most important about open source
“The Cornucopia of the Commons”

9.  Open Source
 Web 2.0
 “Crowdsourcing”
 “the Commons”
 Gov 2.0
 All about what happens when we work together
 And about systems that make it easier for us to
work together

10. Work on stuff that matters

11.  Photo by Jeff Kubina: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/47264499/in/set-1030659/

12. Not an investment bubble - a reality bubble!
 Financial crises
 Worst income inequality since the Gilded
Age
 Oil price shock
 Global warming
 Decline in science literacy & education
 Water scarcity
 Exotic diseases
 Aging populations and soaring health costs
 Decline in economic competitiveness and
innovation
 Dysfunctional political system

14. Mission 4636

15. “the Adhocracy”

20. “We the people...”

21. Vending Machine Government
Vending Machine Gov concept from Donald Kettl:
The Next Government of the United States

22. We Need to Do More Than Shake
the Vending Machine!
http://image06.webshots.com/6/2/57/50/190125750NgQXwu_ph.jpg

23. Connecting the dots

24. Build a better world

25. Together

26. “Otherwise, why would you have traveled
all this way . . . just to be alone?”

27. http://codeforamerica.org