Welcome to a New Era of Design

Here's a great quote from Bokardo, a great blog on Social Design:

All I can say is: welcome to a new age of design. An age where you work with your users to find out the best solution, and in doing so you not only solicit their feedback, but you show them you’re human and you care by actually having a conversation with them. While some people don’t deign to have conversations and only want to be seen as an expert, others are more humble and realize that it’s OK to actually have a conversation instead. Let people know you’re not perfect. In fact…you’ll notice that it’s quite endearing to be honest instead.

In his discussion about the Netflix community blog, Joshua Porter points out the virtues of collaborating with your users, especially about very sensitive issues like being about to conceal some of your rentals from your "friends" in their new community, eg I don't mind that people know I saw the Aristocrats just not the Aristocats.

I think Socrates once said, If you're lucky enough to have users, you better help them do what they want. While no one can always fully realize or express what he or she wants, forums, blogs, wikis, etc. present the opportunity to collect community consensus. Of course, your job is to implement their desires by over delivering on your brand promise eg Netflix- the best way to find, get and enjoy movies

The one good thing about the Bush Administration is we've learned that there is a huge vacuum between not governing by the polls and ignoring the will of your constituency. Error too much to one side and your ability to analyze your objectives will be swept away.