Sharing public resources through MESH Government

Andrew Hoppin gave an excellent presentation at TEDx Gotham titled “MESH Government to the Rescue”.  The summary on YouTube summarizes the talk:

“Andrew describes the “perfect storm” for network enabled sharing and how firms leveraging this trend, from ZipCar, to Netflix and live christmas trees, are outperforming their peers. Andrew is bringing this new form of sharing to the public sector to create a people-powered MESH government; one that can leverage underutilized government infrastructure (e.g., vehicles, buildings and digital assets) to create a more participatory, environmentally friendly society.”

The thinking being presented by Andrew is important for government entities to understand as the power of sharing underutilized resources goes far beyond cloud computing.  The only issue I have with the thinking presented is Andrew’s comment that “We think it’s made government more efficient and effective“.   As we move into 2011 we must balance our approach to open government and bring a more analytical, metric-driven, focus to government.  Thinking that an approach or technology is bringing results is simply not good enough, we must prove it.