Transparency

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Transparency

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Guest Post By Don Tapscott, Curator Social Media Week. As Global Curator, Don Tapscott is leading a series of discussion on our global theme of Empowering Change Through Collaboration. Read previous discussions here.

Even if Wikileaks founder Julian Assange ends up behind bars and has his website taken down, others will be happy to take his place. Think of the whack-a-mole game at the arcade. Hit one on the head, and another will pop up.

The WikiLeaks episode is just a hint of the world to come. We are entering an era of hyper-transparency. Courtesy of the Internet, people everywhere have at their fingertips the most powerful tool ever for finding out what’s really going and informing others. They are gaining unprecedented access to all sorts of information about governments, corporations and other organizations in society.

Assange has said that WikiLeaks will go after private-sector corporations next, starting with the financial services industry. This will undoubtedly unleash a new round of whistleblowers keen to reveal what they see as evidence of duplicity and moral turpitude by their corporate masters.

But forced transparency goes beyond revenge by disgruntled employees. Customers can evaluate the worth of products and services at levels not possible before. Employees share formerly secret information about corporate strategy, management and challenges. To collaborate effectively, companies and their business partners have no choice but to share intimate knowledge. Powerful institutional investors today own or manage most wealth, and they are developing x-ray vision. Finally, in a world of instant communications, whistleblowers, inquisitive media, and Googling, citizens and communities routinely put firms under the microscope.

Overall, this is a positive development. When you’re increasingly naked, fitness is no longer optional. Survival will force you to get buff.

To be sure, all organizations have a right to secrecy. Companies have legitimate trade secrets. Transparency should refer to the release or exposure of pertinent information- information that can help stakeholders if they have it or harm them if they do not. Employees should not violate confidentially agreements or the law as in the case of WikiLeaks.

But rather than defaulting to opacity as was done in the past, increasingly it makes sense to default to openness.

North America’s biggest electronics retailer, Best Buy, has adopted the principle that “our customers should know everything that we know” including data about the defect levels of the products they are selling. CEO Brian Dunn says this is not just a matter of building trust but rather “customers have a right to this information.”

Nike has decided to reveal information about its patents, and through launching the Green Exchange, shares critical environmental data so that other companies can benefit. Fedex has built transparency into its supply chain as the company has found that free and open flow of information reduces transaction costs.

Accenture CEO Bill Green has shocking candor with employees about everything from their financial performance to his personal struggle and tough decision to terminate the company’s contract with Tiger Woods. “Transparency with employees builds trust; it speeds up the metabolism of collaboration and increases loyalty,” he says. “Being open makes us better, and it’s just the right thing to do.”

Rather than something to be feared, transparency is becoming central to business success. Every company needs a transparency strategy. It has to rethink what new information should be made available to employees, customers, business partners and shareholders. Corporations that are open perform better. Transparency is a new form of power, which pays off when harnessed.

Companies should embrace transparency as a force for good. It will result in high-performance business operations. Create good value because value is evidenced like never before. Embrace the principles of integrity, honesty, consideration and accountability as part of your organization’s DNA. In doing so you can build trust — the sine qua non of the networked world.

Don’t confuse transparency with the lack of privacy. Transparency is an opportunity and increasingly an obligation for institutions. But transparency applies to institutions, not to individuals. Individuals have no such opportunity or obligation; they have a right to privacy. So while you’re becoming more open as an organization, become more scrupulous to protect the private information of customers, employees and other people who are stakeholders.

Share your thoughts. What role does social media play in the private sector? How can companies use transparency to their advantage?

For three decades Don Tapscott has been the world’s leading thinker about the impact of the digital revolution on business and society. He is the author of 14 books, most recently Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World and with Anthony D Williams: Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. You can follow Don on Twitter at @DTapscott.

Tags: business, Don Tapscott, transparency, wikileaks
Posted in Featured, Opinion

Making Citizens Active In The Regulatory Regime

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Who better to police the financial institutions that gouge American consumers than the consumers themselves? That’s the philosophy of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which began operation on July 21, 2011. The Bureau wants to use the latest crowd-sourcing technology to collect tips from millions of consumers about deceptive new financial practices, from misleading mortgages and improper “gotcha” fees on credit cards to outright fraud. The Bureau has a Facebook presence, where more than 10,900 supporters have given it a thumbs up “like.”

This approach to regulation is a stark departure from conventional wisdom. In the old model, regulatory agencies pored slowly and methodically through a random sample of the products offered by banks. But as financial “innovation” outstrips the ability of regulators to catch up, crowd-sourcing will make regulators more
responsive.

It’s a good idea that could be applied to other sectors of the economy. Just about every domain of regulation today– from air and water quality to food safety and financial services – could benefit from vigilant citizens helping to protect the public interest.

During the 1980s and ’90s, many governments dismantled large regulatory bodies and asked industries to police themselves. The public was told that self-regulation would be more efficient. Governments were to be the “regulators of last resort” — stepping in only after self-regulation was deemed to have failed.

The problem, in practice, is that most industry self-regulators have lax rules or inadequate enforcement. Also, governments (for the most part) have proven unable or unwilling to take prompt action when market failures become evident. Indeed, after years of under-funding, it’s no surprise that many regulatory agencies are ill-
equipped to pick up the slack, let alone confront novel challenges for which they have neither the resources nor the expertise.

With the old model of command-and-control regulation broken, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new crowd-sourcing model is a dramatic improvement. Initially, efforts to increase transparency and public participation are likely to be most effective in areas that affect the welfare of our children, families and
communities, but they could grow from there.

Rather than allow a small group of powerful companies to police their own activities, I propose the reverse: open up the regulatory process. Make everything transparent on the Web and let citizens and other parties contribute their own data and observations. Where possible, let citizens help enforce regulations, too, perhaps by changing their buying behavior or by organizing public campaigns that name and shame offenders.

Skeptics may doubt the capacity of citizens and advocacy groups to help regulatory bodies develop more effective systems of monitoring and enforcement. But like the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a growing number of regulatory agencies are already convinced, as evidenced by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s efforts to open up its rule-making processes and the SEC’s announcement in February, 2009 that it is developing new systems for collecting anonymous tips in the investment community.

Even when inertia prevails in government, other organizations are taking the lead. The FDA may not require manufacturers of processed foods to indicate on the label a product’s origin; whether it contains genetically modified organisms; or was produced using synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides. But retailers such
as Tesco and a legion of online product guides are making this information available anyway. Why? Because customers are demanding transparency.

I’m keen to hear your thinking on how the vision of transparency and crowd-sourcing in government regulation can be promoted.

Tags: citizenship, financial regulation, financial sector
Posted in Featured, People & Society

A New Energy Revolution

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Humanity’s ability to transform raw materials into energy powered the rise of modern civilization and shaped the fortunes of nations throughout history. James Watt’s steam engine triggered the industrial revolution in Britain and ushered in a period of enormous technological, social and economic transformation. Roughly a century later, the invention of electricity and the eventual electrification of factories brought large-scale business enterprises and double-digit increases in productivity that transformed the United States into the modern economic powerhouse.

Today, the world stands at the brink of a new energy revolution– one that will fundamentally transform the ubiquitous but largely invisible infrastructure that powers every home appliance, every medical device, every light source, and virtually every industrial process, from agriculture to construction. The fossil-fuel-based economy is coming to an end, and a new green-energy economy is emerging in its place. Like past energy revolutions, there will be great payoffs for the countries and companies that master the new technologies early. The opportunity for new product and service innovation is huge, as is the potential for smart firms to create hundreds of thousands of new high-skill jobs in fields ranging from solar engineering to software.

But are we positioned to take advantage? To really tip the scale in favor of green energy, we need an infusion of Wikinomics principles. The need for cross-sector collaboration in developing and scaling new technologies is paramount. But we can- and should- go further. Truly opening up our energy infrastructure could catalyze new sources of supply, provide a platform for new energy services, and help foster a culture of energy “prosumption” whereby household and business users become active producers and managers of energy, not just passive consumers and ratepayers.

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. There is already increasingly broad agreement that our electrical systems should do more than carry electricity. They should carry information. And once the grid carries information, it stands to benefit from the same kinds of innovation, collaboration, and wealth creation that the Internet has enabled in other sectors of the economy.

In many ways, the argument for a smart grid based on open standards parallels the argument for an open Internet. The old power grid is analogous to broadcast media with its bias towards centralized, one-way, one-to-many, one-size-fits-all communication. A smart grid, if it can be built, will leverage the Internet to weave millions, and eventually billions, of household appliances, substations and power generators around the planet into an intelligent and programmable network. And, just as open standards and “edge intelligence” brought forth creativity on the Internet, openness in the new energy grid will ensure it goes beyond being just a computerized pipeline for delivering cleaner electricity, and becomes a platform for a vast array of new energy services.

Building a smart grid on open standards would, for example, allow software developers to build applications just as developers build apps for the iPhone. The most straightforward application might analyze a household’s electricity usage data, identify inefficient appliances or practices in the home, offer tips on how to reduce energy, and provide special discounts on efficient appliances or electronics. Armed with more information about tariffs, for example, the dishwasher would wait for the price to fall below a certain level before switching on, and the air-conditioner would turn itself down when the price goes up.

Innovations like these are especially exciting for the behavior changes they will bring about. Studies have found that when people are made aware of how much power they are using, they reduce their use by about 7%. With added incentives, people curtail their electricity use during peaks in demand by 15% or more. The Climate Group estimates that the application of digital technologies to enable smart grids and smart buildings has the potential to avert 3.71 gigatons of CO2 equivalent global emissions by 2020, delivering some $464 billion in global energy cost savings to businesses, taxpayers and consumers.

These savings pale, moreover, in comparison to the impact we could have on future generations by transforming the way we produce and consume energy. In the face of climate change and diminishing stocks of fossil fuels, we can take one of two routes. One path leads to escalating prices, energy shortages, and economic backwardness in a world facing environmental catastrophe and increasing geopolitical conflict. The other path leads to growth, global cooperation, and an abundant supply of clean power delivered through a smart energy grid that enables consumers to become active and informed managers of their energy consumption.

The choice is ours to make, but how can we accelerate the process? How can the Social Media Week community cultivate new ideas to help this process? Can we innovate ideas that encourage a reduction in energy consumption or generate energy alternatives?

Tags: climate, collaboration, Don Tapscott, energy, Theme
Posted in Featured, People & Society

Collaborating for Change in Healthcare

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Guest Post By Don Tapscott, Curator Social Media Week

I’m enthusiastic about taking on the role of “Curator” for Social Media Week. In the run-up to my kickoff speech on Feb 13 to cities around the world, I’m writing a series of articles to stimulate thinking and discussion in our global community. The topic of this post is healthcare.

Despite the advancements of modern medicine, our basic approach to healthcare has remained unchanged for centuries. It assumes that physicians are smart and patients aren’t. Doctors wait in their office or hospital for sick people to come to them in order to be told what to do. Traditionally, patients have been passive and ill-informed, playing little or no role in deciding their own treatment. As one physician puts it: “Today’s healthcare institutions are like the old media: centralized, one-way, immutable and controlled by the people who created and delivered it. Patients are passive recipients.” In other words, the health system is broken.

Now, courtesy of the Internet, there are tools that allow us to take more responsibility for our own health, and for patients to collaborate with their doctors and, equally important, other patients.

All of us, including newborns, should have our own online Personal Health Page. Just as Facebook keeps you updated on your friends’ activities, your Health Page would keep you up to date on issues affecting your health. You could have links to organizations such as Weight Watchers or a local diabetes support group. You could create a community or join medical “causes.” And low-cost or free applications could help you measure your own health, prediagnose a sick child or test for possible drug interactions.

By moving the heart of our healthcare system online, and making each of us more informed and involved in our health, we would get a lot more bang for our healthcare buck. Knowing what’s happening in your body motivates you to change your behavior. If you weigh yourself daily, for instance, you’ll be more successful at shedding pounds and keeping them off than if you weigh in weekly.

When we are better informed about our health, we make fewer trips to the emergency department, we don’t make unnecessary doctors’ appointments and we require fewer costly home-nurse visits.

Some early examples of this kind of thinking can already be seen online. Users of MedHelp.com, a popular online health community, are able to track more than 1,500 symptoms and treatments on a daily basis using iPhone apps that cover both general health conditions, such as weight loss and allergies, and very specific disorders, such as infertility and diabetes. If they want, patients can share this information on a continuing basis with their doctors or caregivers.

Doctors should do much more to encourage patients to take advantage of the resources available in online health care communities. A good example is PatientsLikeMe.com, a vibrant health care community whose members suffer from debilitating chronic conditions such as ALS, Parkinson’s and bipolar disorder. Members use the site to track the evolution and management of their diseases. But rather than keep all their data private, many members share it with the patient community and the medical research community.

This openness ultimately benefits everyone. Patients can learn what’s working and, in consultation with their doctors, adjust their own treatment plans. Drug companies can use anonymous patient data to evaluate new treatments and thus bring them to market more quickly. “People think we are a social networking site,” says PatientsLikeMe co-founder Ben Heywood. “But we’re an open medical framework. This is a large-scale research project.”

Earlier this week (Nov. 5, 2011), PatientsLikeMe and R.A.R.E Project, a non-profit advocacy and support group for patients with all rare diseases, announced a new partnership to find and connect 1 million rare disease patients to share and learn everything possible about their conditions. The organizations are launching an international rare disease awareness campaign in 2012.

“There are 35 million patients in the U.S. with 7,000+ rare diseases and we want to find them, connect them and support them in sharing and learning by their specific disease and across all rare diseases,” says Dean Suhr, Chief Innovation and Community Development Officer at R.A.R.E. “We’re excited to work with PatientsLikeMe because their open patient registry allows patients to contribute to research, while getting immediate benefits, like improved quality of life, from sharing this information with others.”

Of course, we need the buy-in of the biggest players – namely government and insurers – to help maximize these opportunities and help people from becoming needlessly sick.

I encourage readers to join the discussion on how healthcare can be more collaborative and effective.

Tags: collaboration, Don Tapscott, February, healthcare, Theme
Posted in Featured, People & Society

Empowering Change Through Collaboration

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Guest Post By Don Tapscott, Curator Social Media Week

I’m enthusiastic about taking on the role of “Curator” for Social Media Week. Between now and my kickoff speech Feb 13 to cities around the world, I’ll be writing a series of articles to stimulate thinking and discussion in our global community.

The debate on the role of social media and change is over. Over the last year, many have questioned just how important social media are in helping activists achieve social change. Writer Malcolm Gladwell wrote a thoughtful essay in The New Yorker entitled “Small Change: Why the Revolution Won’t be Tweeted.” He argued that social networks only create weak ties between people, but that it’s strong ties and close relationships that bring about real social change.

It was a good debate and then reality stepped in — Tunisia. It turns out that the revolution was tweeted. The Tunisian revolution wasn’t caused by social media; it was caused by injustice. It wasn’t created by social media; it was created by a new generation of young people who didn’t want to be treated as subjects anymore. But the media dropped the costs of transactions and collaboration and it empowered change.

The movement for change has like a prairie fire across the Arab world and has now extended around the world from the demonstrations of millions in Spain against unemployment, to Wall Street to the global #Occupy movement. Leonard Cohen was looking prophetic when he wrote “First we’ll take Manhattan and then we’ll take Berlin.”

The Social Media Week theme of “Empowering Change Through Collaboration” is an apt one. But evidence is mounting that the current global slump is not just cyclical, but rather symptomatic of a deeper secular change. There is growing evidence that we need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. The global economic crisis should be a wakeup call to the world. We are at a turning point in history.

Let’s face it. The world is broken and the industrial economy and many of its industries and organizations have finally run out of gas, from newspapers and old models of financial services to our energy grid, transportation systems and institutions for global cooperation and problem solving.

At the same time the contours of a new kind of civilization are becoming clear as millions of connected citizens begin to forge alternative institutions using the Web as a platform for innovation and value creation. Social media is enabling social business. From education and science and to new approaches to citizen engagement and democracy, powerful new initiatives are underway, embracing a new set of principles for the 21st century — collaboration, openness, sharing, interdependence and integrity. Indeed, with the proliferation of social media and social networks, society has at its disposal the most powerful platform ever for bringing together the people, skills and knowledge we need to ensure growth, prosperity, social development and a just and sustainable world.

But don’t count on governments or most of our current business and institutional leaders to be the architects of change. Leaders of old paradigms have the greatest difficulty embracing the new. And vested interests will fight against change. It’s up to us.

The stakes are very high. As Anthony D. Williams and I describe in Macrowikinomics, people everywhere have nothing less than an historic choice: empower ourselves to achieve change and collaborate to find new solutions for our connected planet; or risk economic and social paralysis or even collapse. It’s a question of stagnation versus renewal. Atrophy versus renaissance. Peril versus promise.

Fortunately, for the first time in history, people everywhere can participate fully in creating a sustainable future. We are now building the collective intelligence to rethink many industries and sectors of society around the principles of collaboration.

This is not just a theory — it’s happening.

What do you think? What is to be done?

Over the next three months I’ll be introducing bi-weekly discussions on a number of topics where we can empower change through collaboration: Education & Learning, Health & Wellness, Energy & Environment, Politics & Government, Media & Entertainment, Science & Technology, Banking & Finance, Transportation & Mobility, Art & Culture and Marketing & Advertising.

Please join in the discussion!

Tags: February, social change, Theme
Posted in Featured, global