"Directionally less hierarchical"

Does Web technology matter? If it helps you avoid a bullet it does. From Tom Peter's blog via  Johnny Moore, junior officers in Iraq are using real time technology to avoid potentially fatal mistakes. Furthermore, these officers are "directionally less hierarchical than their boomer bosses—and more inclined to figure things out for themselves regardless of received doctrine".

There's a lesson there for government. Important information is not confined to authorized bodies, be they a committee, agency, panel or other instititution.

That's not new. People will step outside the confines of these institutions to find out what they need to know. But what is new is their ability to find each other and systhesis a great deal of information in a short period of time, to present a factual fait accompli, to alter the facts on the ground. And that matters.