Groupthink, and the "Erroneous Priorities Effect"?
In an article titled
New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging And New Technology of Democracy: The Structured Design Dialogue Process
By: Vigdor Schreibman and Alexander N. Christakis
The authors continue that .... Technology of Democracy needed to overcome the propensity toward Spreadthink, Groupthink, and the "Erroneous Priorities Effect" and to facilitate meaningful group dialogue that enhances the pursuit of community wisdom and power. This is the only way to realize the promise of democracy.
The Agora of Philanthropolis is depicted below:
The Agora of Philanthropolis
Furthermore, this depicts a blend and combination of power of human capital, social capital and what that author terms cyberspace capital. In this ideal it is not enough to only bestow responsibility of citizenship but that we must also exercise group dialogue and that group dialogue is best accomplished by extending it globally to a new geometry of languaging.
It is this author’s opinion that I would agree that dialogues must go beyond mere consensus if they are to effectively deal with complex topics. Structured Design Dialogue Process (SDDP) as the NewAgora paper presents is one such method of new geometry of languaging.
See http://sunsite.utk.edu/FINS/loversofdemocracy/ for further discussion and examples of SDDP.
The SDDP goes on to include creative engagement of the citizenry where trust and cooperation is derived from voluntary democratic actions that serve the "will of the whole."
To serve the "will of the whole" I feel is key to its success. How best to accomplish this however is far beyond this post and will take years of study and research to capitalize on the ideas and concepts presented in the New Agora. I also feel that there are many embedded traits of design of dialogue that will aid greatly in the advancements towards inclusion of cyberspace capital in the triad of dialogue depicted above. Some of these traits are spin offs of former constructs such as: Nominal Group Technique NGT and DELPHI techniques for consensus, elemental observations and action plan pattern as language patterns, and decision and action planning used for stages of inquiry. These traits I do feel can be readily used to the benefit of advancing technologies into the future. We can for example, lean on NGT and DELPHI panels in various combinations as group dialogue in electronic format to lead in decision making and in furthering new ideas of development of boundary-spanning or transdiciplanary areas in computer science and technology.
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