Comments on: The 2020 summit: farce or force for the future? http://rickyrobinson.id.au/2008/04/25/the-2020-summit-farce-or-force-for-the-future Hiding under the sheets Thu, 03 May 2012 14:52:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kai Willadsen http://rickyrobinson.id.au/2008/04/25/the-2020-summit-farce-or-force-for-the-future/comment-page-1#comment-1529 Kai Willadsen Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:20:05 +0000 http://rickyrobinson.id.au/2008/04/25/the-2020-summit-farce-or-force-for-the-future#comment-1529 Come on, this was a two day summit; you can't possibly expect that <em>anyone</em> could propose a novel idea and get a <em>committee</em> to agree to it in that timeframe. Even if they could, governments don't exactly have a great track record on implementing novel ideas. As I see it, the idea of the summit (other than as an obvious PR exercise) is as a filter, i.e., get a bunch of smart people in a room, and if they can agree on anything, then it's probably a decent idea. Realistically, these were the only ideas a government was likely to adopt anyway. I agree with you that these exercises end up representating lowest common denominator consensus, but one could argue that that's the point. Come on, this was a two day summit; you can’t possibly expect that anyone could propose a novel idea and get a committee to agree to it in that timeframe. Even if they could, governments don’t exactly have a great track record on implementing novel ideas. As I see it, the idea of the summit (other than as an obvious PR exercise) is as a filter, i.e., get a bunch of smart people in a room, and if they can agree on anything, then it’s probably a decent idea. Realistically, these were the only ideas a government was likely to adopt anyway.

I agree with you that these exercises end up representating lowest common denominator consensus, but one could argue that that’s the point.

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