A Multi-directional Flow of Power and Authority

David Weinberger reports on Senator Bob Kerry’s experiences of using the Internet to govern and manage The New School.

It sounds to me like Kerry is describing – from the position of the top leader – the early days of a shift … from hierarchy to wirearchy.

“What I see happening with the Net is truly a dispersal of power. In the old days, if there were a national security crisis…70 or 80% of the president’s information would come from classified information. Now 70% of national security information is open source…Today, anybody with a notebook computer can be an analyst…It can be very threatening if you’re trying to control it.”

The working definition of wirearchy is:

An n-way dynamic flow of power and authority, based on transparency, knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology.