Crowdsourcing Ideas: Apparently Marijuana Is All California Needs

August 28, 2009 by 5 Comments

California has several big issues that need to be tackled. Our state budget seems to perpetually be in deficit mode, with drawn-out battles for resolving the red ink. The education system, once a shining jewel in the world, now produced some of the low test scores in the country. The state infrastructure must be upgraded to handle the ever-growing population. Our prisons are sagging from overcrowding. Water sources need to be improved for the higherpopulation combined with predictable periods of drought.

So Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger established a novel approach. Let Californians weigh in with their ideas for how to fix the problems the state faces. He set up MyIdea4CA.com, where anyone can tweet their suggestions. So what does the wisdom of the crowd think will help?

Marijuana

Yes, it turns out state leadership has been missing a golden opportunity. Legalize pot, and things improve immediately! Or at least our perception of the problems mellows. Forget wisdom of the crowd. It’s buzzdom of the crowd.

Here’s a list of the most popular ideas as of Friday August 28, 2009 at 6:30 am:

MyIdea4CA.com Most Popular 082809

In the screenshot, and further down the list, there are some more serious ideas proposed. So all hope is not lost in the fumes of a big joint. But you have to admire the persistence of the “legalize dope” crowd. Multiple ideas, multiple votes, top of the leaderboard.

Reminds me of a recent New York Times story detailing  a similar effort by President Barack Obama to elicit ideas from Americans.

The White House made its first major entree into government by the people last month when it set up an online forum to ask ordinary people for their ideas on how to carry out the president’s open-government pledge. It got an earful — on legalizing marijuana, revealing U.F.O. secrets and verifying Mr. Obama’s birth certificate to prove he was really born in the United States and thus eligible to be president.

I fundamentally believe that crowdsourcing works. For instance, our stock markets are a great example of collective wisdom. They provide amazing value in terms of aggregating the opinions of large numbers of people.

Yes, crowdsourcing works. Just be mindful of the crowd from which you’re sourcing.

Advertisement

Filed under geek Tagged with , , , , , ,

My Ten Favorite Tweets – Week Ending 013009

February 1, 2009 by Leave a comment

From the home office in Tampa Bay, FL…

#1: PETA ad that uses sex to sell vegetables (yeah, you read that right) is rejected for Superbowl. See for yourself: http://bit.ly/1xVgO5

#2: NYT piece on Twitter & David Pogue’s request for help w/ hiccups: http://bit.ly/1oI72B BTW – SUGAR. Teaspoon of sugar makes ’em go away.

#3: I’m already part of the Jeff Bezos fan club, nice post here about how he pursues root cause analysis: http://bit.ly/aJtH

#4: Guys at The Content Economy post: Three good presentations on Enterprise 2.0 http://bit.ly/3slVoL Honored to be there w/ @jowyang & AIIM

#5: Enterprise 2.0’s job is to increase the frequency with which those who need find those who know. Among many jobs.

#6: RT @ghornet About to present a business plan – must focus on not using e2.0 buzzwords… afraid someone will yell BINGO!

#7: One thing with emails…you have to re-earn the right to arrive in the in-box every time you send them. Unlike RSS feeds.

#8: Chrysler removed its “Thank You America” post (for the bailout). Became a rallying point for public venting. Background: http://bit.ly/bp0z

#9: Odd to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies, realizing he’s our governor. Bad guys were easier to handle than Sacramento lawmakers.

#10: And so it is settled…after 14 games of the card game War with my 4 y.o. son Harrison, I am victorious, 8 to 6.

Filed under geek Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Ten Favorite Tweets – Week Ending 011609

January 18, 2009 by Leave a comment

From the home office in Washington, D.C. …

#1: “We don’t do a good enough job of teaching our students how to be productively stupid” http://bit.ly/ZTFa4

#2: Noticing many folks securing their single-name twitter handles. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/Wbem Alas, @hutch is too active for me to do this.

#3: Great…if you’re expecting a tax refund in California, you may end up w/ an IOU http://bit.ly/TibY h/t @ZoliErdos

#4: The Social Media Dead Zone: 2 – 6 pm Pacific. Interactions, traffic drop during that time.

#5: Tired of being asked about things they could look-up themselves instead? http://letmegooglethatforyou.c…

#6: Reading: Ten Reasons Why “Enterprise RSS” Has Failed To Become Mainstream http://bit.ly/XLsZ

#7: Whoa – my blog post about @KarlRove just got linked from Huffington Post: http://bit.ly/Y0rS

#8: 24 fans, make sure you follow Jack Bauer @j_bauer and Tony Almeida @tony_almeida

#9: Reading: The Top Ten Worst URL’s in the world http://bit.ly/ux91 Actual URLs, too funny.

#10: I’m not actually an extrovert, I just play one on Twitter

Filed under geek Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Same Sex Marriage in California – What Change Will We See?

June 16, 2008 by 7 Comments

[tweetmeme source =”bhc3″]

Same sex weddings begin today here in California. I’m wondering how this is going to change things around here.

Before Same Sex Marriage

I have some gay neighbors. I see them driving around. I see one of them walking their dogs. Chat with them on the sidewalk. They buy groceries over at the neighborhood store. Other neighbors ask them for advice on home remodeling. My kids say hi to them.

After Same Sex Marriage

I have some gay married neighbors. I see them driving around. I see one of them walking their dogs. Chat with them on the sidewalk. They buy groceries over at the neighborhood store. Other neighbors ask them for advice on home remodeling. My kids say hi to them.

Filed under geek Tagged with ,