The New Agora

The Agora was considered as the birthplace of democracy where citizens came together to discuss in a group decision making structure. In today's world, it's difficult to reach consensus in a democratic society. If the future of a worldwide democratic government should ever come to be; How should we govern on a worldwide basis? The answer could very well lie in Internet Technology. Internet Technology has dramatically changed the way in which we live, communicate, educate, and function as groups. The idea of the global village using internet technology to construct the new agora is quite interesting as a futuristic prediction of how the world may govern many years from now. In reviewing the New Agoara article, my attentions were immediately drawn towards the similarities both the NGT and Delphi methods of group decision-making where all group members contributed to the discussion. A quick look at the processes with the SDP model such as the Steps in the Definition Stage of Inquiry (SITDSOI), and I am reminded of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) where once a problem has been identified, a systematic method is defined and leads to an outcome. An analysis of a feature within the SDP process steps in the definition stage of inquiry. The SDLC, like the steps in the SITDSOI, the first issue is the need to facilitate a meaningful dialogue (problem identified). The SDP supports planning and Innovation through a procedural step based process, which leads to a problem solving solution. Like innovative ideas, a problem needs to be present to trigger the question to improve the process.

References: Schreibman, V., Christakis, A. (n.d.). New Agora. Retrieved from http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf