Platform Wiki -- For ICT, For Hong Kong

We are in a world of rapid transformations. Our leaders and our industry must be prepared for change. Our educational system must even be able to train our next generations for a future society that we do not know about today. This sums up the challenge our society faces today, and while much of this challenge has been brought on by technological changes, I believe technology, innovation and knowledge will form the solutions to this challenge.

So how will these critical factors – and more directly our ICT (information and communications technology) industry – reshape Hong Kong's future society and economic development? How will Hong Kong take on the opportunities and indeed responsibilities presented in front of us, and compete to reach a higher ground of success?

In my book “Hong Kong 2.0,” published in January 2008, I examined how Web 2.0 technology, applications and culture had made a strong impact on our economy and society from the bottom up. I sum up these shift factors into four areas:

Economy 2.0 – Hong Kong must abandon our short-sighted culture of quick money and numerous excuses made against the technology sector – our market is too small, we don't have enough talents, etc. Hong Kong cannot run on one leg – financial services – alone, and indeed we owe it to our country in making our share of the contribution to the national development in innovation and technology.

Governance 2.0 – Network technologies have made future governance of companies and governments more and more “democratic” -- from bottom-up rather than top-down, more interactive and participatory. Our leaders must accept this change in culture for more participatory democracy in order to minimize conflicts and maximize from the wisdom of the masses.

Sharing 2.0 -- The essence of Web 2.0 is in sharing: user-generated content. As professionals, we must accept a bigger share of user responsibilities. “Ordinary people have more power to do public good than ever before because of the rise of non-governmental organizations, because of the global media culture, because of the Internet, which gives people of modest means the power, if they all agree, to change the world,” Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said at the Harvard College commencement exercise in 2007.1

Think 2.0 – For Hong Kong, our government, corporations and individuals all have to contemplate change. I use the word think because it must be a deliberate process – not just following what others may tell you what to do – and, think is a verb. So, it is a call for action. You are a part of this change.

It is with these principles in mind that I have written this election platform, word by word, sentence by sentence. However, in accordance with this 2.0 shift, this election platform can be participatory too. Please visit the Hong Kong 2.0.1 – the wiki version – to edit your views, and be edited, as an experiment to develop our collective wisdom.