Google Wave - a game changer for local government?

We are fortunate to live in a country that Abraham Lincoln described as having "government of the people, by the people, for the people..." But our people's government has some long-standing problems:

1) Few citizens feel they are kept informed of current actions on issues relevant to them. They feel left "out of the loop" in a system designed to be "of the people."
2) When they actually are aware of what's going on, few of those citizens feel their voices (ideas, concerns, etc.) are being heard and considered. The "by the people" part lacks substantive meaning.
3) As local government decisions and actions impact the public, few citizens feel they can see and evaluate the value (or lack of value) of the actions. The "for the people" part is usually unclear or subject to spin.

Google Wave (coming later this year) is a tool that, if used well, could go a long way towards washing away these problems.

To illustrate using a simple scenario, I'd like to build on a blog post by Michele Ide-Smith. imagine this...You are invited (via email, Twitter, Facebook, or even Google Wave) to attend an online consultation about the local Council’s plans to build a major new housing development, which will provide affordable housing. The meeting is going to be relatively short, about 45 minutes. Before the meeting, you use your browser to go to a specific "Wave" concerning the proposed project and you view a brief video about the development proposal. You look at interactive maps of the plans. You read associated snippets of documents. Then as the online consultation gets underway, you join in discussions in realtime, along with other citizens, councillors, council officers and the developers. During the discussions further snippets of document, images and video are added by the participants relating to the points that are discussed. The facilitators focus the discussions on key themes. The discussions are fairly open and the facilitators invite you to take part in opinion polls as the discussions progress. The facilitator brings the meeting to a close and thanks the participants for taking part.

After the meeting you replay some of the discussions that took place and read through some of the threads that you missed during the meeting. A couple of days later the Council post a formal response to all the points which couldn’t be addressed in the meeting, in context within the original discussions.

Then, you decide this is something you're really interested in and continue to participate in a very flexible and fluid online, public committee that begins to improve and "mashup" the original proposal. This creative collaboration not only builds a more ideal plan quickly (or with the deeper examination, rightfully kills the project due to previously unseen show-stoppers or general lack of value) but helps generate project buy-in because of wider participation and understanding.

As the project proceeds, its progress (and ongoing issues: cost changes, jobs created, move-in dates, neighborhood economic impact) is comprehensively updated by project leaders using charts, videos, spreadsheets, etc.). Once the project's phases are completed (planning, construction, marketing, occupancy, maintenance, etc.), post-phase reviews can be conducted to hear and learn from what went right and what didn't.

It's a government project "of the people, by the people, for the people."

Google Wave is currently in limited beta testing (about 100,000 users). Once it's widely launched, if the Google Wave model is adopted at the pace of a Twitter or Facebook and becomes the emerging norm, it will carry game changing potential for local government.