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A new age of transparency

POSTED ON 
January 15, 2009

The Brilliant Blog is not a place for political commentary. We've got lots of opinions about politics, but we try to maintain a rigorous separation between business and state here. That said, I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't write about President-elect Obama's website, www.change.gov, which represents a revolutionary step toward transparency like we've never seen from our government. If you haven't yet perused the site, here's a taste:

  • A list of every meeting the transition team is conducting with outside groups, including dates and times, along with copies of documentation provided to the team and the option to submit your own comments and documents for consideration.
  • A citizen's briefing book, which enables anyone to submit their ideas about what the administration's top priorities should be. You can also vote on other ideas that have been submitted, and the most popular ones will be compiled into a briefing book to be given to President O once he is sworn in.
  • A video of the press secretary-to-be answering questions submitted to the site (in a surprisingly candid way).
  • A blog chronicling the day-to-day activities of the incoming administration.

The implications of this are profound and far-reaching, and I believe reflect a much broader trend toward what futurist Faith Popcorn calls the death of the Consumer and the rise of the Citizen. "With the mutuality of responsibility, Citizenship suggests shared values, shared interests, democratic decision making, full disclosure and a free ranging, ongoing dialogue," she writes on her website.

Let's just envision for a moment a large pharmaceutical company that decided to launch a new website that embraced the same kind of rules - complete with a regularly updated blog about regulatory issues and new product development, video of the CEO answering patient questions about side effects, pricing issues and more, and a list of the legislation it was actively lobbying on behalf of - it's almost unfathomable, isn't it? And yet - if our government can do it, why can't businesses?

Marketers, particularly in the technology sector, have quickly grasped the opportunities that exist by engaging customers in dialogue and decision-making activities, but companies, as a whole, have not, and the differences between industries is staggering. For example, blogs are practically unheard of in the pharma industry, due to regulatory concerns and litigation fears. Even social marketers are still struggling with how to get their customers more involved and still retain control of the brand and the message.

But once an idea has gained traction, it's hard to stop the momentum, and I think the Change.gov site is an example. Our government has a long, proud history of cloaking many decisions in secrecy and telling us that they'll make decisions for us. Now the door has been opened, and if people decide they want to walk through, it's only a matter of time before they'll expect other doors to open, too. It's inevitable.

Alison Harrison
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT

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