11. 20 Years, 10 Lessons/Trends
1. About people
2. Groups & places
3. Democracy matters
4. Agenda-setting
5. Generations & youth
6. New voices
7. Institutions and policy
8. Open data & civic tech
9. Knowledge sharing
10. Challenges (2015)
13. 2003 Prediction – Democratic
Evolution or Virtual Civil War
“Those hoping for an
almost accidental
democratic transformation
fostered by the
information technology
will watch in shock from
the sidelines as their
favorite new medium
becomes the arsenal of
virtual civil war — virtual
civil wars among
partisans at all levels.”
14. Challenges – Post 2016 Super Storm
• President Trump,
Twitter impact
• Social media becomes
political media
• Protest echo chambers
– Like minds isolated
connections
• Anti-democratic intent
• “Fake News”
• State sponsored digital
disinformation
• Facebook ad targeting
into amazing sharing
engine
15. Trends I see …
• Accelerate
• Amplify
• Assembly
• If direction was already negative … what
can we do?
16. Back to the positive lessons …
For those who seek to make
democracy better.
Join the evolution!
18. Social Media – Private Life First
… about “Public Life” second
19. You are in the center
“networked individualism”
You
Friends
Family
Communities
Prof. Peers
Public
“Entities”
20. “My husband is missing …”
10+ e-tools used in
“crowd-led” search
21. Defining “e-democracy”
● Society’s sectors
moved online with
“as is” one-way
approach
● Citizens in center
access digital
information and add
new many to many
engagement
Political
Groups
Private
SectorGovernment
Media and
Commercial
Content
“E-Citizen”
Social
Media
Center
23. Online groups and geography
• Representative government based on place
• Place + online groups = powerful impact
• “The most democratizing aspect of the Internet is
the ability of people to organize and communicate
in groups.” Steven Clift in “Democracy is Online” article published by Internet Society, 1998
25. “Civic” Facebook Groups
• Local “online public
square” Facebook
Groups spreading
• E-Democracy.org
proposal to share best practices
• Facebook’s new mission to build global
community and “meaningful groups”
26. Places and Information
• Information from gov often
about place
• Personalized notification
on topics and/or place
• With group engagement …
10x more empowering
28. Democracy Matters
• Bring “democratic intent” forward for
real change
• Marketing v. engagement tension
• Governance that can … listen, engage,
and respond … people working together
29. Democratic Goals Strategies
1. Public Trust and
Transparency:
2. Accountability:
3. Better Decisions:
4. Effective Programs:
1. Information Access
2. Budget/Spending Data
3. Digital Public
Engagement
4. Knowledge Exchange
with Online Groups
38. Agenda-setting
• Citizen to citizen engagement forming new
public opinion
• Blogging, then Facebook/Twitter/ YouTube,
influencing mass media
• Problems with 24 hour “political spin” cycle
online/cable TV news
• E-Advocacy/E-Politics resources
46. Facebook-Native Politicians
● Minneapolis elected 7 new council
members in 2014, average age 32 - more slides
● Councillors asking public questions,
directly engaging, Mayor posts daily
● Personal profiles key - Pages secondary
60. Building Institutions, Policy
● Investment: More are paid to care, make
change, engage
● Sustained Impact: mySociety, OKFN, ODI,
Sunlight, CfA, Local Code for X, GovLab, g0v.tw,
OGP - Open Government Partnership and
government actions
● Policy: Open data policies, executive
orders, government funding, new laws
65. Knowledge exchange, sharing
• Tools of online engagement to do
public service work – better
output
• Lessons and practices shared
across governments, civil society,
and more
66. Open Gov Facebook Group
● Secret strategy:
One click to
link digital
political leaders
to #opengov
● 7000+
members, 100+
countries
67. Knowledge Hub – KHub.net
Digital collaboration space dedicated to
the public and non-profit sectors
Where public service professionals
connect, exchange knowledge,
ideas, insight and experience to
improve public services
190,000 registered professionals across
450 public sector organisations and 11
countries – started in United Kingdom
68. Community Solutions Exchange
Future Idea:
Imagine an online groups network for active
citizens to exchange “what works”
experiences, lessons, and motivation on the
top 20 local public challenges facing every
community.
70. Big Challenges 2015
• Loudest voices, conflict
• Filtered for similarity, not diversity
• Continuous evolution in commercial services
• Loss of control to reach more people where
they are online
71. Democratic Open Data Deficit
● Stronger
o Budget and spending
o National politician info
o Politicized accountability
o Who can I vote for? Where?
● Weaker
o Transparency for
engagement
o Public meetings
o Local democracy
o Timely notice
● Projects to
Watch
o Open Civic Data
o EveryPolitician (mySociety)
o Google Civic API
o OpenStates
o Free Law Founders
o Councilmatic
o Ctr for Tech and Civic Life
72. Big Challenges 2017
• Virtual civil war
• Sharing false
information
• Partisan divide
• Digital to offline
organizing
• Political social
media depression
• Leveraging
Facebook’s
community push
• Need for positive
democratic intent
investment
• Opportunity to
connect democracy
builders needs action
84. E-Law, E-Courts
• More access than ever tensions
over further access, who pays,
and “what is in Google” privacy
85. Get Friendly Campaign?
• With 10,000+ local elected
representatives across Taiwan,
what would it take for 200 people
within each local district to friend
their representative(s) on
Facebook?
86. Social Media Strategies –
Key for organizations to
raise vital voices, influence
citizen dialogue online
88. E-Justice, Justice 2.0
• Growing interest in digital/open
data from courts, justice system
• Canada Center for Court
Technology – new SocMedia use report
• Open Data in Judiciary – Latin
America, Liberia Pre-trial
detention, Online Dispute
Resolution, 10+ more resources:
http://bit.ly/justiceopengov
90. What new models emerge …
• When you are “of” not just “on” digital?
• When real-time speed, pictures, and/or protest needs
sustained involvement, to go in-depth?
• Between national issues or causes before young
people are more invested in a place?
• For intergenerational connections?
• E-participation by young people (Europe): Guide, Brochure, More