'Making' government

MIT Technology Review Editor David Rotman’s commentary on the difference between makers and manufacturers applies to what’s happening with government these days around open data applications, open source software development and civic hackathons.

Rotman’s editorial is a critique of former Wired editor and author Chris Anderson’s new book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution.

Substitute ‘government’ with ‘industry’ and ‘civic hacker’ with ‘maker’ in the excerpt below:

But to get anywhere near Anderson’s lofty goal of revolutionizing industry, individual makers and small startups will have to collaborate not only with each other but also with large industrial firms. And to do that, the maker movement will need to be more curious and knowledgeable about how stuff is actually made.

If the government ‘maker’ movement can grok this, 2013 will be the year of the civic hacker.

More importantly, the ‘large industrial firms’ (government) must realize they play a crucial, proactive role in encouraging this.

(HT Alex Howard)