“It’s all about what you can measure in the private sector, and it should be in the public sector, as well,” says Newark Mayor Cory Booker, in a candid discussion about how the government must adopt performance-based standards that define success in the marketplace. “We’ve got to find a way to drive towards real, true accountability.”
Booker, who was given the honor of crafting the Democratic party platform this year, is a rising star in politics and has been an outspoken proponent of technology. For instance, he has a famously interactive Twitter feed, where he responds to constituent demands in realtime (and even shovels driveways at the request of tweeting Newark residents during snow storms). He tells us that having thousands of eyes around his city helps alert him to problems in realtime, making it an essential utility for 21st-century governance.
At Disrupt San Francisco today, he launched his much-anticipated social media video network, #waywire, to help make citizens their own broadcast networks. Watch the video above for Booker talking about his faith in technology and citizens and how it can help them collaborate for better governance.