listening in business, politics & government

i'm getting to be a big fan of craig newmark (the craig in craigslist.org) who posted this video recently about participatory democracy. he talks about inspiration, leadership, customer service and learning in business, politics and government.

he recommends that obama appoint not only a chief technology officer (as planned) but also what i would call (even if it is a terrible name) a chief listening officer who would have the president's ear and be responsible for keeping his/her ear to the ground, knowing what's going on, doing what newmark calls good customer service: listening and acting on it, listening and acting on it, listening and acting on it . . .