My friend has it right

http://www.seekingrelevance.typepad.com/

At the very least, the discussion needs to be held. I agree with a lot of the ideas above, especially for their aims. I have a couple of ideas that I will throw out in the coming days as well.

The temptation is to engage in a dissection of each idea, assessing their feasibility. I caution against that. As a country we are a extremely large focus group, and one that is directly impacted by the conclusions we make.

When I have led focus groups in the past, I have instructed the people in them to tell me what they want a piece of software or technological product to do. Do not worry about whether it is possible, assessment is another step in the process. It is usually the experts who end up telling others what is possible and impossible -- and they almost always err on the side of caution. I have never had a programmer look at a proposal that came out of a focus group and as a first instinct tell me that the task is doable. They do, however, in the end almost always get the task done.

Idealistic, unrealistic and naive ideas should be the goal. For they are our best and only antidote to the cynicism with which we are currently ruled.