I just saw a video of Arnie Duncan, the US Secretary of Education introducing the video contest he’s inviting young Americans (active students age 13 and up) to enter. The contest is entitled “I Am What I Learn” and it asks the question “why is education important to fulfilling your dreams?” It will be judged on creativity, the quality of content, and the ability to inspire and winners will receive $1000 each.

The significance of this contest is that with it, the government entity in charge of education is utilizing the web to have a two way conversation with the very individuals who will benefit from the work of their hands. They appear to be striving to engender the belief that there can be a dialogue between citizens and government and real change can occur because of that dialogue. Those of us in the business world know that a company’s best ideas often come from its customers. In the world of Web 2.0, those customers can speak loudly with reach as far and as wide as it echoes in social media. I have to say, I like the listening part that the DOE is committing to and its use of internet video technology as a medium for dialogue. It sends a strong signal about the direction in which we are heading.