You can’t have inclusion without openness.
That may seem obvious to some. But it’s true power hit me like a ton of bricks when it popped into my head. More-so as I’ve been hung-up and writing on this openness thing for ages, on many levels, not being able to articulate the importance my gut was feeling about it.
I was reading a post my friend JP Rangaswami wrote titled “When you see a fork in the road, take it“, where he was summarising the book by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser : Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of Digital Natives
In one point in particular, he states:
The issue of the digital divide is also not going to go away. So when we work on these solutions, we need to keep making sure that the inclusiveness is protected, the inclusiveness that is an integral part of the digital native value set.
[emphasis mine]
There’s something inherent in the abundance of a digital world and dawning digital culture that requires, even demands, openness on many fronts. It’s something we who are emerging from a scarce, analog, closed, culture are coming to grips with – or at least will be forced to – sometimes clawing and screaming.
But there’s something about this openness that bodes well for inclusion beyond just the digital world, and largely because of those who are growing up digital as it’s part of them – ingrained in their psyches and in their being.
Abundance demands openness. And openness bring inclusion. Sometimes it just takes a long time … time being an analog concept.
[via: When you see a Fork in the Road, Take it.]
[book: Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of Digital Natives]
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