Loosely Coupled Apps & Societies

I've noticed a strange correlation between the way people are building software applications and the way people want to organise their societies. 

In the same way that people have abandoned highly dependent and integrated monolithic applications, people are starting to tell their politicians that highly integrated and dependent Unions are not what they want. 

Britain no longer wants to be part of the EU. People in Britain perceive the EU as cumbersome, overly interdependent, slow to change and expensive. I must state that not all Brits feel this way but for the purprose of simplicity, I am referring to the majority vote. Scotland, according to Nicola Sturgeon, no longer wants to be part of a highly integrated and dependent Union with England and Wales. (But ironically she does want to be a part of the larger but arguably less integrated European Union- food for thought)

In the US, talks of the large states like California, Texas, New York, etc, being divided on their newly elected President Donald Trump are very real. States are now starting to push the boundaries of the federal democracy established by the US as they seek increasing amounts of independence and autonomy from the Federal Government. 

So why is this? Isn't that the million dollar/euro/pound question...?

My 2 pence worth...  

I think this push for independence through smaller and more sovereign states is largely due to the rate at which technology is transforming our lives and moreover the job markets. It's easy to blame right wing or left wing politics but really, this is more of a symptom of change, not the root cause. 

Rapid innovation means rapid change and with rapid change society and it's people need to be agile in order to adapt to circumstances and capitalise on the new opportunities that arise. 

Governments and Unions don't move quickly at the best of times- let alone big and cumbersome ones. People are fed up with it and feel that there must be a better way- and maybe there is? 

Back to my original point about software applications. Companies operating in this fast-changing digital economy no longer build big, highly integrated and dependent applications that address all customer and market needs. When customer needs and markets are changing all of the time, applications need to be agile and easily changed. Big applications do not take kindly to change, so, companies now develop lots of small specialised software services that can be easily linked together -think Lego bricks- through things called APIs to make whatever customer services they need to be successful in the current market conditions. 

The cool thing about this approach is that each micro software service can be built optimally for its own purpose. The developers can use whatever program languages they prefer, whatever infrastructure best suits their needs, implementing the best rules and policies, etc. So long as this microservice can expose their data and functions via an efficient API (think of an API as a remote control) to the wider application ecosystem and don't negatively impact other applications, what developers do to their application is entirely up to them. 

Sounds appealing. Let's translate into societal context...

**Small societies speaking whatever language they like, building whatever infrastructure they like and implementing their own rules. So long as they have efficient and effective agreements in place with the wider ecosystem of societies for things like trade and the movement of people, societies can do whatever suits them the most so long as they don't negatively impact other societies**

I am not suggesting societies and software applications are the same thing and believe me - both have their own complications. However, there are some interesting parallels that can not be ignored. 

Societies need to serve the needs of their people - which are changing all of the time. Agile societies, loosely coupled democracies and unions are a necessity of the future but I think we have a long way to go before we can build effective ones and stop focusing on the wrong issues - like immigration (for example). 

One technology that has a lot of potential in this space is blockchain. This is a whole new conversation though - no time for that now, so I will leave you a link to Bettina Warburg's awesome TED talk. 

In the meantime, I'll get to work on a societal API ;-)

Many Thanks for Reading,

Chancey