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Re: governmental efficiency
As we discovered with Covid, efficiency is inversely correlated with resilience. Governments have to be resilient in ways that businesses just don't.
My dad was in the German Navy during World War II. When he hit retirement age, the German government started paying him a pension.
1. They assumed the obligation of a previous government – a completely different country, really. (1/4)
2. His service records survived somewhere, probably in a city that ended up looking not unlike Gaza does today. (2/4)
3. We don't think he ever told the government where he lived. So it seems that, one day, a report popped up listing Willy Marzinzik (he changed our name in the US) as a person due to get a pension but whose status was unknown. Someone did detective work, and one fine day, he got a “Congratulations on your retirement! Would you prefer a monthly check or direct deposit?” He'd had no idea he was even owed a pension. (3/4)
"Run the government like a business," and you won’t get that. You'll get “oops, we're not doing that service any more. You have 30 days to download your data” or “oops, our servers were breached – here’s a gift certificate by way of compensation” or "changing market conditions render it unprofitable to deliver mail to the following rural locations. Tough noogies." (4/4)
@marick
Eventually you see it in bankruptcy and the executives emptying the cash into their pockets
@marick I wish we didn't try to apply business thinking to government (and vice versa).
Business is good at some things, government is good at other things. Both suck at some things, too.
@JayBazuzi @marick Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival has some related bits.
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/SystemsOfSurvival
@billseitz @JayBazuzi Now that I'm trying to use the Federated Wiki to develop a blend of "a place to collect all my thoughts" and "a sense-making device," I should probably pay more attention to your linky-type-thing.
The FedWiki crew seems eager to hear from oddballs like me. I'm too recently involved to push people forward, but it might be interesting to hear you dialogue with the main “they're driving the shape of the technology" people.
@marick @JayBazuzi
I think FedWiki is super interesting for clusters of people writing about the same stuff at roughly the same time, but not seeking convergence. aka Parallel Writing.
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/ParallelWriting
@marick @JayBazuzi I placed it in a social-writing space (3x3)
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/SocialWritingMediaSpaces
twitter-thread
https://x.com/BillSeitz/status/1589327700958662659
@marick @JayBazuzi that's not really my context, plus I'm avoiding JavaScript, plus I really don't like the sliding-panes UI, so I don't wanna crash their party....
@marick @JayBazuzi once I get my stack un-broken, I'll probably revisit my SisterSites/TwinPages model, and re-engage a bit over there....
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/2022-02-06-AddingSisterSites
@billseitz @JayBazuzi My initial impression of fedwiki was similar (I think) to yours. The original wiki had its collaboration on its sleeve, as it were, and fedwiki seemed like a personal note-taking/sense-making tool. But Thompson Morrison (who you mention) is one of the two main drivers of new features, and he's *all about* convergence. But what's easy to miss is that the collaboration uses the wiki but happens via synchronous in-person (in-Zoom) work.