I watched Joe Trippi (@joetrippi) speak today and I’m scared that people will only hear part of what he’s saying.

Trippi has been connected to American political campaigns since the 1960s but it was the Howard Dean and then John Edwards campaigns that have truly turned him into a globally recognised entity. He’s currently touring Australia talking to companies and politicians – many of which may not truly understand and embrace the real message in his ideas.

Trippi’s starting point: give slingshots to the people

Trippi’s main metaphor paraphrases an idea from Glenn Reynolds who wrote An Army of Davids. Reynolds contends that new forms of communication allow groups of regular people to take on and destroy evil Goliaths, and that the best way a company or institution can adapt to these new times is to hand out slingshots to these Davids.

Trippi’s examples range from creating Dean signs for each electorate (eg ‘Dean for Puerto Rico’) to a pre-You Tube online video website, also for Dean – neither of which had been done before.

What scares me: messages over engagement

My concern is that Trippi’s audience will only be thinking about slingshots in this context: How can we get our message to more people? How can we get them to give us money? How can we get them to do stuff for us?

In other words, I fear that they will see technology solely as a way to mobilise influence – not to necessarily evolve ideas. A pyramid scheme.

Why this scares me: opportunity lost and noise

As an idealist, I hate lost opportunity. With the pressures of the financial crisis mixed in with changing human behaviour, there has been no time like the present for companies and institutions (people as well) to allow interaction via new technology to change them back.

So, this era is not exclusively about creating change but also about being changed.

As a participant in these ‘social channels’, I would really hate to see more noise. Monologue blogging, tweeting and You Tube-ing. The same noise moved into my environment. More Hillary Clinton on You Tube because it’s on a PR checklist. That’s just missing the point and still focuses on media as a delivery mechanism rather than a collaboration stimulant.

A build on the big idea: slingshots and paintbrushes

So, change and be changed. Give out the slingshots, the tools to help people do the good they want to do. Allow them to gather around you with shared beliefs and use you as a platform to do something bigger. But, also, ask them how you can be a better citizen. Give them paintbrushes to paint you new ideas, and mould you into something truly beautiful and useful.

Yes, I hear the cynics mumbling Henry Ford under their breath (“If I’d asked people what they wanted, I’d have invented a faster horse”) but what’s changed is that a lot of your customers, clients and constituents are now smarter than you – individually and collectively. And deep down, that’s probably what scares you most.

See, even Facebook had to open up this week

Photos courtesy A. Mart and John Morgan.

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