It seems that the word of the year is “Open” and isn’t it funny how simply appending it to any other word seems to transcend it’s meaning into something powerful and cool, transformational even.

Don’t get me wrong, I am inspired by the concept of “Open” (and also aware of the irony of a bloke from Microsoft complaining about “Open” anything – just get over it and work with me here, OK?)

In particular, I’m really worried about how Open Source, Open Standards and Open Government have all seemed to become the same thing in the minds of the politicians and the press. 

Bobby Caudill nailed it in his recent blog post in that “Open Government is about people not technology” – I’d go further to say Open Government is about people and Open Standards are the best way of getting us there.

Regardless of your technical or political persuasion, we have to get focus back onto what it is we want to achieve – Open Government is the outcome we all are striving for, we should therefore, not spend all of our time in the weeds focusing on the tools we’ll use to deliver it.

All this and still no hoverboard!

We managed to secure and take one of the Microsoft Surface devices with us, which proved to be a real crowd puller, it’s just amazing what having one of these devices can do to people’s perceptions of what is possible.

The real magic isn’t in the device though, it’s that it’s significant enough of a change in how we view “computers” that it enables people to think really differently about how technology could be leveraged in the way we live, work and play.

This seems to be the real trick to successful envisioning in that you’ve got to find a way to break the thought patterns of those involved to open up to new potential – we aren’t always lucky enough to have a “big ass table” with us, but man, it sure opens doors (and minds) if you do…

In doing some research for some video debates we’ll be doing with the FT soon (more on that soon), I’ve been reading Jonathan Margolis’ intriguing book on Futurology –

Early on, Jonathan posits a condition known as “Arrogance of the Present” – a condition many people suffer from (and have suffered from throughout history) which is the “belief of every successive generation that at last, sophisticated, modern folk that we are, we’ve got it and indeed, we _are_ it.”

This condition means many things to different people but whatever it means – it spells trouble for those of us that believe we can do better and/or different things with technology and that, believe it or not, as clever as we think we are, there’s still a whole lot more for us to do/invent/evolve.

This arrogance is not restricted to technology either, it applies to many of the changes we face in both our professional and personal lives. Think about what people must have thought when mobile phones were first invented – “why would anyone want to carry such a device” and then think about your lifestyles today. As much as we’d like the option to not have one for a week or two – I’ll bet there’s not many of us that would want to be permanently without one.

The problem for me is that this kind of attitude is infectious in those who don’t have an understanding for what the changes may bring and worse still, feeds on itself to blow even the inane into matters of critical importance to society.

I’m asking you then, as readers of this blog to seek out examples of this “Arrogance of the Present” – highlight them for what they are (hell, send ‘em in and I’ll post them here in a special category of their own if they’re good enough) – but whatever you do, help people understand that we’re just not _there_ yet and if it’s OK with them, we’d like to on keep trying to push the envelope a little…