14 Questions on the Future of Government and Governance in the Digital Age

As preparation for our Opening Government meeting in London on November 9th, we are asking participants to either record themselves or allow us to interview them in response to 3 selected questions of the following list.  The list reflects the issues we aim to answer throughout the project. The purpose of capturing their thoughts is to develop a shared foundation of  what people envision to be the future of government and governance in the digital age, and to determine what they feel to be the compelling questions we should be tackling. To that end, we plan to post their responses to some of the following:

1. What do you view as the most significant impediments to effective governance?
2. How is the design of our institutions of governance flawed?
3. What preferred alternatives exist to representative democracy?
4. How can we re-design institutions of governance? What is the role of technology?
5. How can we devolve and distribute power away from centralized institutions?
6. What could government look like in ten years? In twenty years? In fifty years?
7. How does institutional innovation affect corporations? What is the role of corporates in performing public functions?
8. How do we decentralize power without privatizing it?
9. How can we recognize, implement and scale innovative approaches to hard problems faster than we do today?
10. How do we craft an alternative political theory to either representative or deliberative democracy?
11. How do we maximize the flow of values and expertise to and from people to the end of making better decisions?
12. What concrete examples can you describe of more effective governance? Innovative institutions?
13. What can we do right now to realize your vision for the future?
14. Why did you accept the invitation to participate in this project? Why is it compelling to you?