Ten Trends Shaping Government Today
Futurist Jack Uldrich has posted an item to his website looking at Ten Trends shaping Government today. Although each item is arguable and may be context specific depending on ‘which’ Government you’re looking at, it’s a good overall take suggesting things to do with data, the interenet, crowdsourcing and the like. However I think Jack is missing one HUGE trend, the rise of what I call MOGRA’s
What’s a ‘MOGRA’ I hear you ask? A MOGRA is a: Massive, Organised, Grass-Roots, Activist group. Examples of MOGRAs can be see in the likes of MoveOn.org, Getup.org.au, 360.0rg, AVAAZ,org.au and many others. Here’s what I posted to Jack’s site in response to his article:
Jack I think you’re missing perhaps one of the more critical elements changing the face of Government and Governance, what I refer to as MOGRA’s – Massive Organised Grass-Roots Activists which are increasingly seen to by pass entrenched Government barriers, or force the awareness of Governments into a new perspective space. The tech, without the action element, will be unlikely to shape Governments
I see MOGRAs as different from previous activist groups that have been around for signficant periods of time – say Greenpeace, World WildLife Fund, SeaShepherd and so on in that MOGRAs tend to ebb and flow based on a variety of issues of importance to their membership, where as a World Wild Life Fund would typically care only about issues affecting animals. MOGRA’s leverage online spaces in an organised and fast paced manner. They understand that people will drop in and out of campiagns and focus areas as both suits their time and interest levels.
This adds to their dynamic nature as much as it does risks their longevity. But what they do well, is spread a message quickly, widely and targeted to ramp up awareness and gather support. The approach may seem impulsive but it is almost ALWAYS organised, relying on crowdsourcing to carry the workload.
Expect to see more MOGRA’s influencing Government policy in the future
One of the current affairs TV programs did a story recently on the efforts by NSW police to crack down on ‘hoon’ drivers through a specific squad targeting them. The Victorian Police recently announced a similar project with the squad headed up by one of Victoria Police’s most effective senior officers, Inspector Bernie Rankin. Unusually…
Read More >Lewis Hamilton, the former automotive Formula One ‘number one’ had his car impounded on Friday night for alleged ‘hoon’ driving, having been spotted by police spinning his wheels at a busy intersection in St Kilda. Whilst many character witnesses have already jumped to his defence, with one interesting observation from Mark Webber suggesting we have…
Read More >Following on from the highly rated ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact ‘Accelerated Scenarios process’. The ‘2030 Dairy Scenarios’ brought together the members…
Read More >Queensland is one state that leverages its weather to the hilt – and the fact is the ‘Sunshine State’ earns its reputation. The odd thing is that in the past week I’ve spent in the Gold Coast experiencing the warm, humid and often wet weather it has occured to me that Queensland might be missing…
Read More >In a recent article in The Age, Clive Williams of Macquarie University’s Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism suggested that athletes booked in to attend the Commonwealth games in India need to consider a terrorist attack as a potential wildcard. Whilst an interesting perspective, I’d like to suggest that a potential terrorist attack at…
Read More >If my information is correct, the 14th of February is the start of the New Year and instead of the usual flowers and chocolates, you might be wise to invest in another gift for your heart’s desire Because Feb 14 is the start of the Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger. So…
Read More >Had any thoughts yet? I have – plenty and judging from the number of media inquiries it appears lots of other people are also curious to know what might lie ahead in the next year or next decade. I’m putting my thinking hat on so that we can consider what 2010-2019 might hold, the second…
Read More >I’m tipping that Consensus will be reached at Copenhagen this week. Alas it will be a consensus for more talking, thinking and commitments to agree to a proposal to set a time for a discussion around more concrete targets. In otherwords, a commitment to not commit. The politicians waver whilst our planet is being poisoned.…
Read More >The cycle of consumption rears its head as it has done for quite some time. Consumption is neither good, nor bad, it ‘just is’ and right now the majority of media exposed potential consumers are being lured, enticed and occasionally conned into parting with their hard earned money to satisfy needs and whims. Some consumers…
Read More >Our son has just celebrated his fifth birthday and although we don’t make a huge fuss about milestones (the kids get a party every second year), there’s no doubt that he is learning about desired future outcomes and goals. I doubt he is different from most kids in his ability to spot something and declare…
Read More >