1. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O1
Fourteenth International Conference on Knowledge,
Culture and Change in Organizations
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK, 4-5 August 2014
Re-imagining Government: The Internet Will Make
Governments Unrecognizable
By Christopher Wilson, Senior Research Fellow,
Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa
Monday August 3rd
, 2014

2. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O2
Evolution of Society (1)
• Evolution of human society has occurred on the basis of ever more
complex systems of collaboration (Wright, 2001)
• This trend has 2 components:
– increasing diversity of human thought;
– the increasing complexity of systems of social cooperation that mitigate
the conflicts that arise when diversity increases.
• The increasing diversity of thought stems from:
– Juxtaposing people with different backgrounds, histories, cultures and
perspectives >> innovation & the global village;
– More innovation >> increasing specialization among members of society
that has raised social welfare;
– But more specialization leads to even more diversity in thought and
action, i.e. human diversity is growing
– E.g. prior to early 1980s, less than 50 fields of academic study, today
Wikipedia lists 1475 fields -- a 3000 % increase.

3. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O3
Growth of Knowledge in Geology
1945-2000

4. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O4
Evolution of Society (2)
• In closed systems, more diversity increases entropy or
the state of disorder.
• To counteract the disorder, systems must become
‘open’.
• In human systems this means bringing in new
perspectives, knowledge, resources, capacities from
outside leading to more social diversity & increasingly
complex mechanisms of social cooperation to offset the
effects of potential conflict (Law of Requisite Variety)
• The increasing complexity of social cooperation has
evolved not only from attempts to neutralize disorder
(the stick); but also more importantly as a means to
enhance social creativity and collective welfare (the
carrot).

5. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O5
Social Consciousness &
Organizations (1)
• The primary mechanism of social cooperation is, loosely speaking,
organizations. Organizations represent the structures by which
individuals agree to work together.
• Organizations evolve in complexity as human consciousness
evolves (Fredric Laloux, 2014)
– “every time humanity has shifted to a new stage, it has invented a new
way to collaborate, a new organizational model.”
• 7 organization shifts mediated by changes in social consciousness –
– Basic reactive, animistic-ritualistic, impulsive (ego-centric), conformist
(ethno-centric), achievement (rational), pluralistic (shared values) and
evolutionary (self-actualizing)
• Each new shift in the prevailing assumptions, worldviews and
paradigms embodied in human consciousness, calls forth new
organizational paradigm through which human cooperation is
manifested.
– “Every time that we, as a species, have changed the way we think about
the world, we have come up with more powerful types of organizations.”

6. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O6
Social Consciousness &
Organizations (2)
• New organizational paradigms do not entirely replace
previous ones
– “never before in human history have we had people operating
from so many different [organizational] paradigms all living
alongside each other.” - Laloux
• The presence of the different organizational forms & their
different animating states of consciousness add further
to social complexity and the challenge of governance.
• Our structures of government were designed when the
notion of meritocracies was just beginning to gain a
foothold and shared-value and evolutionary type
organizations had not even been contemplated

7. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O7
Technology Alters Both Social
Consciousness & Organizations
• New technology alters our sense of who we are,
what we do, how we do it & how we cooperate
– Tools >> separation of man & nature (ego-centric)
– Writing >> codification & sharing of abstract thought
– Printing press >> popularization of ideas; mass
education; dismantling of rigid, hierarchical societies
(conformist)
– Steam engine & electricity >> machines; global
industrial political economy; global institutions
(achievement & pluralistic)
– Internet >> access to answers, anywhere, anytime;
global peer-to-peer connectivity; mass collaboration
(evolutionary)

8. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O8
Boulding Triangle

9. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O9
Internet & Who We Are
• Digital Natives have more connections, more
knowledge, experience more sharing of knowledge,
more innovation & expect more transparency
• Answers are not important. Finding the ‘right’ questions
are more critical – a social task
• Diversity is the beginning of complex solutions not
something to be feared
• Collaborating & working with others is natural
• DN’s more confident in their own voice; more
empowered; more participative & more willing to jump
in to sincerely make a difference
• DN’s less deferential to authority, less trustful of both
leaders and government & less confident that
government can solve problems
• Desire to realize a grand purpose, one that can unfold
both their own & humanity’s potential

10. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O10
Blind Men & the Elephant

11. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O11
Internet & What We Do
• Economies of scale & knowledge w/o giving up the
human benefits of small orgs like freedom, creativity,
motivation, & flexibility
• Elimination of top-down hierarchy
– Ineffective, distrusted, holacracies
– Not positional power that commands respect but the power to
help others achieve their goals
– Coordination is not imposed but emerges in a climate of
openness, generosity and shared purpose
• Collaborative economy
– "the competitive paradigm cannot be fully appropriate" - Summers
& deLong
– “the open-source culture of the web has taught us how to share,
and made sharing a default of social interaction” – Badger
• Internet not a technology but a psychology experiment
– ‘work’ is less & less about building things & more about
understanding how people react to things. Routine work to robots
– Fail Fast: Fail Often

12. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O12
Internet & How We Coordinate
Ourselves
• Citizens don’t trust leaders or governments
• They doubt gov’ts are willing or able to develop the plans &
create the partnerships to solve complex issues
• Concern that democratic foundations of gov’t being eroded
• They see bureaucracy as unable to integrate Internet culture
• IT is not the solution: the amount of data & complexity
growing faster than new technologies
• “do-it-yourself” form of democracy preferred over the old
passive & paternalistic system of parties, reps & elections.
• If everything is disintermediated & decentralised, then “let’s
crowdsource government” & “put citizens in charge”
• Urgent need to create an open, trusted platforms for citizens
to connect & cooperate, eg. OpenParliament.ca;
Loomio.org; RandomHacksOfKindness; DemocracyOS

13. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O13
Out of Date Assumptions
1. Government is the ultimate authority for divining social needs & setting
social rules
2. Government knows best - it has special insight into the ‘public interest’
3. Government has all the resources needed to solve social problems
4. Government has all the coercive power needed to affect solutions
5. Government has ethical & moral purposes that transcend those of its
citizens
6. Government affects collective tradeoffs by bringing reps of various
interests to one place to engage in elite accommodation
7. Government is the only actor trusted enough to deliver public goods
and services -- like education, healthcare, public infrastructure, steering
the economy and provision of social supports
8. Only Government can keep you safe
9. Government is obligated to reinforce traditions of leadership and
followership
10. Government changes slowly which is to the betterment of all.

14. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O14
Re-imagining Government
• Misalignment between Internet based society and traditional
public sector institutions threatens the legitimacy of gov’t
– Just because it was done in the past is no rationale for how it should
be done in future, eg. the secession of Silicon Valley
• Alternatives to gov’t for social coordination are growing, eg.
Brazil’s orçamento participativo, or Ushahidi-Haiti
• The public sphere is changing -- education, healthcare,
transportation, economic development & social services –
either they no longer need gov’t support, or have become so
complex that gov’t intervention is ineffective
• New Public Interest needs: connectors; trusted brokers;
facilitators of collaboration; conflict resolvers; creators of a
platform for citizen cooperation; impact assessors; partners
in governance
– Demand is for ‘G’ government to move to small ‘g’ governance

15. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O15
Government Options
• Partner: Governments and citizens can jointly
re-imagine how they want to be together and
how they can best work together as partners to
create a future that everyone wants;
• Irrelevant: Citizens can move forward
independently with social coordination provided
by a growing Internet of Things, for all intents
and purposes seceding from the world of
government altogether; or
• Threat: Government can stage a coup to try and
reassert its control over a population that is
neither ignorant, incapable, homogeneous,
isolated or deferent.

16. 08/02/14 Christopher Wilson, Centre on Governance, University of O16
Thank you
Christopher Wilson
Senior Research Fellow,
Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa
wilson@telfer.uottawa.ca
Tel: 613-355-6505