Gaps; perception, power and shortfall gap
So what this amout’s to is that, thanks to the internet, we now have better access to the worlds knowledge (as never before) but the factors creating distortion are also being magnified. Let’s consider three gaps, which are dynamic and are changing over time.
Perception – how we interpret the world. Our perception varies according to the degree of ignorance, irrational beliefs and deception that are present in the human activity system, as the critics of media manipulation and social media misuse show we are badly out of kilter big time right now (2018). But also the internet itself is a tool open to everyone to use – unlike the frontier which was an important factor in United Stated development but eventually disappeared, it does not matter how much of cyberspace is corralled by Facebook, cyberspace is always much bigger.
Power- Although there is a lot of progress the gap between a small group of powerful people and the majority is growing. This matters because it exceeds what social primates find acceptable, it will lead to (or at least perpetuate) resistance and conflict and so fails the test of the (enlightened) self-interest of all citizens. I looked at the power gap Part 2 Limited Participation and Disengagement
Shortfall– in business planning its routine to compare an view of processes as-is to description of processes that are to-be in order to determine the degree of change needed to bring about the to-be process. Included in this would be the extent it the change – large or small, how disruptive, the sort of changes that would be needed to allow staff to operate the new process, be it in recruitment or training. (POPUP – well I say routine, there are companies who impose change by diktat and then muddle through, usually those competing on cost rather then quality). The case here is that in order to bring about improvement there must be some notion of what good looks like (Part2) and some fair idea of how well are we doing (feedback, as described above)