This past week, I’ve been reading an interesting book - Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.” This may sound like an odd title for a book - we know with certainty that the world is indeed round, and we are barely into the twenty-first century. The book, however, is a very interesting look at globalization, and is definitely worth reading. Flattening, according to Friedman, is the idea that technology and lowered trade barriers have leveled the playing field throughout the world to some degree - for example, people in India and China are now competing directly with us in America (and elsewhere) for jobs.

One of the main lessons I gleaned from this book is how rapidly advancing technology often leads to cutting out parts of a process that are inefficient or unnecessary - sometimes brutally. The end result is much more efficient, and we assume it is better in the long run.

One area of our lives that remains conspicuously left out of this is our government. Despite all of the technological advances that enhance communication, our government remains surprisingly out of touch. Your Senator may have an email address that you can send email to, but would you be surprised if you got a response? Likewise, many in Congress (or trying to get there) now have blogs, but virtually all of them are examples of one-way communication. At best, a few allow comments.

Enter the wiki. For years it has been used by groups of people to share ideas, work on projects, and disseminate information. The most famous example is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that anyone can add to. A wiki (or similar tool) seems like an excellent tool for democratic government - it allows a great deal of input from the general public.

A current example can be found here in Utah. A Democrat challenger to Orrin Hatch, Pete Ashdown, has setup a wiki on his campaign site. This allows interested individuals to leave their input on any number of issues, expand on the ideas of others, and have a chance to influence decision makers.

How successful Mr. Ashdown’s wiki and campaign will be remains to be seen - I personally hope to see him win, and also would like to see the wiki concept catch on more. There are, however, a few difficult issues with using a collaboration tool, such as a wiki, in government settings:

- Vandalism & Incorrect Information. Wikipedia has been in the news a bit over this issue. Since anyone can add to these sites, there is no independent fact-checking or quality control. Issues are generally caught quickly and remedied, but more subtle vandalism and incorrect information can go unnoticed for some time. Such issues will undoubtedly cause trust issues with wikis.

- Government Regulation. A Senatorial candidate using a wiki is one thing - using a wiki in a more official role is quite another. There will likely be a lot of hurdles for using a wiki in any sort of official capacity.

That said, I think wikis and online collaboration tools present an excellent opportunity for government to get closer to those it governs, govern more efficiently, and restore some trust in our government.