Resurgence of Arvind Kejriwal

Repost from a post I had written on 10 February, 2014 — close to the time he first rose to prominence. Thoughts on what he represents with parallels drawn to evolving business models.

This year saw the meteoric rise of Arvind Kejriwal. For many, he brings in a new brand of politics — non-corrupt and forthright. For me, his ascendancy also signals the coming of a far more revolutionary shift — the age of a truly participatory movement.

In a first for India, he successfully raised money for a mainstream political campaign from ordinary people all around the world in a clean, efficient and transparent way. Its not like crowd-funding is a new concept. However, from a technology perspective we are probably looking at the first time where crowd-funding, and adaptations of the concept, have the potential to disrupt more established institutions in politics and business.

Take for instance the publishing industry. We are already at a stage where people can publish their own books and be read by people everywhere. No more are inspired authors limited by the ruthlessly competitive and subjective eye of the publisher. Does this mean publishers are useless? Absolutely not. Innovative publishing concepts like Bloody Good Book are spearheading change by embracing crowd-sourcing. They request people to upload their manuscripts online, and visitors of the website rate them in terms of potential. They then index a mix of visitor ratings and publishing expertise to pick and publish certain entries using their resources to market the book.

Similar evolution happening in education. Look at a platform like Udacity; where people have the ability to create and offer courses to other people around the world and earn money for it. It is the perfect example of crowd-sourcing a skill or talent, and matching that with a group of people who are willing to pay to learn those skills. Technology enables this in a clean, non-clunky way by removing the barrier of heavy investment or infrastructure, making it a win-win situation for both.

Same with transportation when one thinks of ideas such as Uber and ZipCar. In the space of hotels and renting places you have AirBnB. Its even happening with health with platforms like Healthtap getting traction.

The power of the individual and the crowd has never looked more promising. From influencing legislation to publishing to business — we are truly entering a phase, enabled by technology, where the idea of democracy can spread to beyond just a system Government.