It’s a Wiki, Wiki World

Talk about the wisdom of crowds!  New Zealand has now brought the power of collaborative thinking to the rule of law.

The Kiwi police opened their national policing laws to the public, in the most democratic way possible:  they created a wiki to enable the populace to make revisions to the code.  

 

From the New York Time's magazine section: 

“The idea was to take something that’s inherently dry and intellectual” like law reform, explains Superintendent Hamish McCardle, who is in charge of the review, “and transfer it to something that’s cool and innovative” — like Web 2.0.

The wiki format made it simple for anyone and everyone to participate - whether an expert on international law or a citizen with an opinion.  For those who are wary of user-generated content, yes, some strange choices sprung up, like the suggestion that the force be renamed “The New Zealand Yum-Yum Teddy Bear Strike Force Z.”  But the power of the wiki is that oddities like that are quickly edited out by the majority.  And other ideas that may never have been considered find voice, like a suggestion to increase the minimum police recruitment age to 25, since the human brain is not fully developed until then.  This addition found its way into the final document.

In this case, unlike Wikipedia, there is a single, final arbiter to decide whether the crowdsourced creation is acceptable.  The new wiki-created act will go through a traditional review process culminating in its presentation to Parliament.

Intriguing, isn't it?  This is the promise of participatory democracy writ large.  It will be interesting to see where else wikis pop up in government.  Will they catch on as a way to engage and involve the populace?

And what about marketing?  Wikis are great tool for inviting your consumers into the co-creation process.   Do you have the courage to open your "laws" to your consumers?  What do you think you'll get if you do?