changecamp – a wonk’s perspective
hi everyone, i’m @dchartier, a self-avowed geek and policy wonk who is extremely excited for our upcoming changecamp. my day job puts me in a place where i’m always considering how the internet is changing society, and how government needs to change with it. for changecamp though i am first and foremost attending as a citizen.
for the record i assure you i know how to capitalize a sentence, however i prefer to write like this when writing outside of my professional capacity. it helps maintain a psychological difference in my mind between the _real_ me vs. the work me. this difference, between the professional me and the personal me, is crucial to my participation in changecamp.
as a professional i cannot attend changecamp without some explicit authorization, anything I said could be taken as the “Official Policy”, and in a democracy the right to create “Official Policy” rests firmly with our elected officials. what we do in the bureaucracy is take this “Official Policy” created by our elected officials and try to make it real. this process is long, hard, and due to the risk adverse nature of large bureaucracies, often very difficult for normal people to understand.
as a citizen i feel i must attend changecamp. i can’t speak as Darren the Analyst, but i can speak as darren the guy who has worked as an analyst. i hope that by being there i can provide some insight about our public institutions from an insiders perspective and how we, as citizens and Canadians, can engage productively with these institutions to make the system better.
that’s what i hope to give, what i hope to take away is a renewed sense of my own civic engagement, and some ideas of where best to apply my own energies into improving our system. in the United States they have Obama, carrying the hope for a solution to the profound set crises in politics, the economy, the environment and culture. in Canada we have our own crises, overlapping and interconnected with what is happening in the USA, but different. the Canadian way isn’t the American way, but we can learn from Obama. i doubt we’ll have our own charismatic leader in the near future to guide us with a steady hand, but that should not stop us, regardless of leadership in a democracy it’s alway’s going to be up to all of us to solve our crises.
that’s what i hope at least, i think we can make it happen. will you join me for changecamp? bring your ideas and an open mind, it’s going to be a great, productive, day. more registration spots open on thursday at 9am, but if you can’t attend in person keep an eye on this site for information on how you can participate.
d_c
[edit: minor grammar fix and formatting snafu]
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I applaud this (and also amused by your total lack of capitalization)
thanks! i was hoping someone would like it =D