Now that Obama is searching for a Chief Technology  Officer (CTO), it is worth remembering what other CTO’s have asked from some creative industries / labs. For instance, in Apps for Democracy (via istrategylabs), when asked (I am quoting them now); “how we could make their revolutionary open Data Catalog useful for the citizens, visitors, businesses and government agencies of DC” (/end quote). we can read the following statement as a response;

“You can do one of two things. You can spend years and millions of dollars contracting this out to big consultancies – and you’ll end up spending twice what you thought you would and get half the quality you hoped for…which is what governments do now. Or, the other way is to have an innovation contest where we put the data in the hands of the people, and give them cash prizes and recognition for their efforts.”(Corbett, 2008)

which, IMHO, is revelatory of the ways and trends creativity is being fashioned form and for government driven proposals. What value has to be attributed to collective intelligences working together for a final result (be it an app, be it a urban planning project)? How do we dignify the effort of collaborative work such as we saw in Free / Libre Open-Source Software ? With a single price to some of the participants? If what governments did was getting half the quality for paying double (then it would be trouble – The Clash dixit), what do they  do now (again, this is a rather huge “they” to account for the many differences between governments, but we can not forget or refuse to see that many governments do mirror themselves and tend to adopt similar strategies for mastering the “one to the multiple” type of relations)? rewarding half price and doubling the quality?

Five blocks away from “Apps for Democracy” we can rescue an excerpt form an event held on November 2006 @ Institute of Network Cultures named MyCreativity. (thx to Ptqk for letting me know). As the introduction goes we read;

“Despite the proliferation of the creative industries model, it remains hard to point to stories of actual “creative innovation”, or to be even sure what this might mean. What is clear – if largely unacknowledged – is that investment in “creative clusters” effectively functions to encourage a corresponding boom in adjacent real estate markets. Here lies perhaps the core truth of the creative industries: the creative industries are a service industry, one in which state investment in “high culture” shifts to a form of welfarism for property developers. This smoke and mirrors trick is cleverly performed through a language of populist democracy that appeals to a range of political and business agents. What is more surprising is the extent to which this hype is seemingly embraced by those most vulnerable: namely, the content producers (designers, software inventors, artists, filmmakers, etc.) of creative information (brands, patents, copyrights).” MyCreativity.

Two particular ways of understanding and accounting for creative demands are appearing here. Aren’t they? Haunted shores for a creative river

guifi.net is seemingly taking advantage of the open-innovation trend to start getting grants and funding for keeping and extending it’s network. Aware or unaware of these debates, focusing on the results, innovation and creativity are increasingly becoming a vocabulary to account about the projects one develops or participates in (specially in ICT’s). I am being creative or not? IMHO, asking this sort of question might be just as silly  as looking into a mirror and wonder if  “I am normal or not?”. the annoying thing here is the existing and overwhelming demand to prove it.  A virus-like effect is expected to arrive into theaters next to you; at the work-place (Be Creative), at the coffee shop (Be creative), at the supermarket (Be Creative), at the office (Of course), when drawing dazzling lines while hearing a telephone conversation (Be Creative), when posting in a blog (Be Creative), and so on. Shall we expect a reward?

RAX!