Micropatronage - taking government funding to Renaissance 2?

I was at #trampoline in Melbourne on Saturday.  A wonderful creative day full of inspiring conversation (but that is another post).  @RossHill gave a lightning talk on micropatronage:

- micropatronage is the combination of the concept of the patron with connectedness. “Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another.”

It's a concept I've come across before, but somehow in that creative oven of ideas, it set me thinking. 

In one of my previous incarnations I studied Florentine patronage, and it always interested me how patronage benefited both patron and beneficiary.

It also interests me that in Florence, patronage was the key to social status.  Career and social mobility were dependent on being involved in a network of patronage relationships.

Patronage supported not just creativity but the fundamental structure of society.

..you waffle woman, what's your point!

I was interested in Ross's take on micro-patronage as supporter of small innovative projects, but what if you take it further.

What if it's a natural extension of #gov2au.

I work with projects that compete each year for funding.  I write reports, and I collect data to meet compliance requirements.  This limits the capacity of project to innovate by forcing it to meet known compliance levels, and never progress beyond.

Citizens as patrons..?

Imagine if government funding, or at least elements of it could be subject to micro-patronage.  Where not just government departments but taxpayers could apportion an element of their taxes to projects which they felt would further the societies they lived in....

It sounds crazy, but could it work.  We talk of open data.  Imagine how the reports and the data would look if projects were openly competing for patrons.  Sure, there's probably a need in the transition stages to phase in the concept... 

Imagine the way society, innovation and funding could reconnect and create a second renaissance, a true chance to fund and connect some of the micro-ideas which deserve development, and perhaps take us beyond compliance, and into a rich new social network. 

Would it work, could it...?

Images: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH_214images/van_eyck/red_turban.jpg

Comments

[Dan]

It isn't a bad point. I think it leads us nicely into a path where we ask, "how much longer can we handle politicised Department of Treasury's?" Surely we have reached a point where the financial arm of government is as powerful as the judicial arm, and just as we have a separation of powers there, we need it between the policy makers and those who hand out the bucks - otherwise all the good decisions get rationalised to output-based funding models and risk management assessments.

I like the concept of more involvement in tax allocation at a micro level! Keep thinking on this. Please.

[Krishna]

You know, my first reaction was to be a "naysayer". Breaking up govt expenditure at a micro level and getting some control over where tax money goes is a big issue, but the major blocker is getting through govt inertia.

Then I thought, if the data is there, the government has to listen. What if we create a site where taxpayers on a monthly basis clearly say what percentage of their tax they want allocated to what aspects of govt and civic works. And what is this data is out there, aggregated? The govt has to take notice. And it would be good fun to build the app and put it out there...

I think you have something here :-).

Also, your historical references to patronage is spot on. There was a similar patronage culture in India during the same time and this has given us magnificent temples, art and culture.

Cheers,
Krishna