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August 21, 2006
Taking Information Democracy Literally
Information Democracy is the trend for business intelligence. Information, in many industries, has become the differentiating factor in doing business. The price or quality of the product or service simply doesnt make the difference anymore.
In openly sharing information, we can learn something from the public accountability governments have in democratic societies. And government is adopting BI at great speed, raising the bar for the corporate world. Over the years I have found numerous examples, but one of the coolest I found recently.
In my country, The Netherlands, the School Inspection Board (Onderwijsinspectie) visits every school to assess the quality of the staff, the methods used, academic results, student activism and also softer factors such as atmosphere. This leads to a written report, but also to a scorecard, which the inspection board calls Quality Card (kwaliteitskaart). So, not a report card for the kids, but for the school! And this Quality Card is public information on the inspection boards website (www.onderwijsinspectie.nl). Here is the Quality Card of the school that my children attend:
The school even has a download facility for the report on its own website.
You may argue that the business world is different -- a dog eat dog world. But even in government, at least at the microlevel, there sure is competition. If the quality card of one school shows bad results, nothing stops the parents from putting their kids into another school (and in such a small country, there is always another school nearby). This will have budgetary consequences, and ultimately impacts the number of teachers a school can employ. The principal of the school knows his performance is public information and is used to it.
Phew, happy my children attend a good school, no red traffic lights in the Quality Card. Otherwise I would have had to put them in a different school. By the way, making use of this forum, I would like to warmly recommend this school. You see? It works! Information has become a differentiator.
Have you seen any good examples of information democracy? In government or in business? Let me know ...
frank
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at August 21, 2006 12:45 PM
