by Chris Potts

Extreme Democracy using wiki, New Zealand style

Opinion
Sep 26, 20071 min
Enterprise Applications

New Zealand Police have launched a wiki for the public to help shape legislation. Matthew Smith, from BTELL in Australia, sent me an article from the Sydney Morning Herald of September 26th 2007. It offers yet another example of how people are innovatively exploiting collaborative technologies in ways that disrupt the status quo. In launching the wiki the NZ Police Superintendant is quoted as saying “People are calling it ‘extreme democracy’.” Drafting new legislation “shouldn’t just be the sole reserve of politicians.” And it’s not being limited to New Zealand voters. “The wonderful thing about a wiki is we can open it up to people all around the world.” ‘Shadow IT’ is already yesterday. Now we’re into globalised ‘shadow government’. It will be interesting to see how the politicans handle the outcome. The article is here: https://www.smh.com.au/news/web/new-wiki-to-stop-the-wicked/2007/09/26/1190486375202.html