What Would Google Do?

I first heard about this new book from a speech the author, Jeff Jarvis, gave on Fora.tv in February. The book had just come out, and he was making the speaking circuit. I just finished reading the book and it is truly great!

About an hour ago, Tech President blog, posted a message about the keynote address Jeff gave at the Government Web Managers Conference today. Micah Sifry posted many of his remarks, nearly in real time:

• Give the people control, we will use it. Jeff describes blogging about his "Dell hell." Dell ignored the bloggers, their policy was "look don't touch" the blogs. But lots of people started pointing to his post. Then after about a year, they started blogging.
• He asks how many in the audience have read the Cluetrain Manifesto, and only about 3-4 raise their hands.
• There is an inverse relationship between control and trust, says David Weinberger. When you don't give up control, you aren't trusting the people. You're saying they're a bunch of dummies. When you don't trust them, you don't believe in democracy or capitalism or freedom of religion.
• Can we make transparency the default for government? Make everything clickable, linkable, searchable. We'd have millions more people watching and participating in helping make it better.

As I read the passages in What Would Google Do?, I try to imagine what government would be like if they followed these principles. I imagine the joy members would get when professional societies and non-profit organizations were more open and transparent.