I was invited to a gathering of Activists & Technologists on March 16th at the Ventana del Soul Internet Cafe in Austin after the last day of the SXSW Interactive Conference.
[inline:DSCN4195.jpg=Post-SXSW Activist Technolgy Gathering]
There seemed to some potential overlap with what I intend to do with The Echo Chamber Project and with what others are planning on doing with the same CivicSpace/Drupal platform.
I'm in the process of going over my lessons learned and planning my next steps for this project. I'm starting to solidify where I want to be in a year from now and what I need in order to get there. Hopefully I'll be able to form some symbiotic relationships with some of the participants of this Activist Technology group.
The two lenses that I wore at the M16 meeting were wholistic politics and the role of the press in a democratic society. I extracted some highlights from my notes and shared them on the closed wiki. I thought I'd pass them along here as well for anyone who's interested.
Intent of M16 Gathering
The intent for the March 16th gathering was to build community and bridges between activists and technologists. A metaphor was later given that described activists as "fishermen " and the technologists as the "boat" that facilitates the fishing. There usually isn't a lot of crossover between the boat builders and the fishermen, and so this meeting help to establish a common language and bridge this gap.
Rulemaking
Bob Carlitz of Information Renaissance reported on the latest developments of making the Federal Rulemaking process more transparent and democratic. This was news to both activists and technologists. From Bob's site
Rulemaking is the process that national regulatory agencies use to translate Congressional enactments into law -- a process that has been called "absolutely central to the definition and implementation of public policy in the United States."
Carlitz spoke about how the process of rulemaking is becoming more transparent and he is working to help promote a more informed dialogue between the corporate lobbyists and the public interest watchdogs and engaged citizens. Here are a couple of other articles about Rulemaking.
Transparency
* As the press and rulemaking processes become more and more transparent, will the decision-making process of the political establishment also become more transparent?
* Can transparency be used to counter deception and manipulation from political opponents?
* Are there ways to accumulate context and history on political issues?
A Campaign Strategy of Education instead of Persuasion
* How can trust be built instead of bought?
The existing model of political persuasion relies heavily upon creating 30-second television ads that manufacture perception and use manipulative emotional cues. These tactics have proven to be effective, but how can discussing the substance of issues online be used to trump the strategy of image generation?
* The power of snap judgments is very powerful and needs to be included within the mass communication strategy, but how can the audience be engaged in co-creating meaning instead of being lectured to or persuaded?
* How can the interactive and non-linear communications capacities of the Internet be used to increase civic engagement?
* Is there a way to create a multi-leveled and tiered communication strategy for different audiences?
* Why not feed the bloggers with transparency by publishing the most detailed and through policy justifications online, and then summarize and re-frame the issues for mass consumption?
* What if electoral politics was focused more on creating an infrastructure where citizens could help educate each other and deliberate on electoral issues?
Neutralizing the Power of Money
A large chunk of money spent on political campaigns is spent on television ads.
* How can online coordination be used to create offline viral marketing that neutralizes the impact of money?
* Can transparency, openness & honesty be used to neutralize the effect of attack ads?
Providing Emotional Significance
* How can online social networks and other technologies provide a creative and social outlet that can provide a broader range of emotional significance for civic engagement?
Bridging the Digital Divide
A reoccurring theme that came up at the M16 gathering as well as throughout the SXSW Activist Tech panels was how to take into account the Digital Divide. There doesn't seem to be a silver bullet solution to this issue, but it is worth considering how technology can increase civic engagement without simultaneously making the digital divide even larger than it already is.
* How can offline and online communication strategies be better incorporated?
The suggestion came up for finding new ways to use the telephone or radio to supplement existing e-mail and other web-based outreach.
* Can a peer-to-peer outreach model be used create nodes and bridges to disenfranchised communities?
* How can multimedia tools be used to solicit input and insight from those don't have the resources to participate in an ongoing deliberative democracy process?
Bridging the Ideological Divide
From my experience with America Coming Together's GOTV efforts, there didn't seem to be a large effort to reach out to registered voters of the opposition party.
Green Party Candidate Matt Gonzales was outspent 10-to-1 in the San Francisco Mayoral Race, and his strategy was based upon the principle that converting one voter registered with the opposition party to vote for him was actually equal to two votes -- one less for the opposition and one more for his campaign.
* How can emerging technologies (blogs, wikis, online social networks) and websites (factcheck.org, campaigndesk.org) be used to bridge the ideological divide?
* What kind of insights can be gained from the practice of deliberative democracy in order to bridge this ideological divide?
* Can a peer-to-peer model be used to discuss political issues with friends and family in either an online or offline context?
From "Information" to "Relationships"
Jerry suggested that we replace "Informational Technology" with "Relationship Technology" in order put more of an emphasis on connecting people in a community as opposed as aggregating and transmitting information.
General Technology Principles
1.) Open Architecture and Modular Software
2.) Open Standards
3.) Open Source
Using More Multimedia Tools
* How can podcasts, screencasts, graphics and online videos be used as a more effective way of spreading information and coordinating decentralized labor?
Open Source Campaigning
* Do current electoral laws allow for a political campaign to open sourced where volunteers could contribute specialized labor and supplement the tasks of paid staff?
* How could a political campaign balance a structured centralized campaign with the chaotic and energetic nature of decentralized volunteers?
* What are other bottlenecks of open source campaigns?
User Interface Throughout the Life Cycle
A number of points were made about the desire for better user-interface design, and how there are different usability requirements for the different audiences throughout the software's life cycle -- pioneers, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and the legend.
It is difficult to make a software program simple, robust, have a good user interface and be affordable. Don't expect a Cadillac for the price of a Volkswagon.
Motivations for Participation in Deliberative Democracy Forums
The three conditions for why people participate in Deliberative Democracy Forums
1.) Representative – Their community will be impacted by the decision.
2.) Neutral Space – Rely on facilitated dialogue where their viewpoint will be heard and considered.
3.) Legitimacy – The decision-making process is somehow connected a legitimate power structure.
Speaking vs. Listening
We now live in a cluttered communications environment where everybody wants to speak, but not everybody wants to listen. We have an epidemic of not listening, and there is no market for messages.
Interconnectivity
Government, Media and Culture are innately interconnected and it is difficult to speak about one of these three domains without considering the influence of the other two.
Tech Tools for Deliberative Democracy
* How could online tools be used to give additional insights into face-to-face deliberation?
* In what ways does the digital divide limit the effectiveness of online capacities?
* Could quick online polls or tags and folksonomies be used to find common ground and points of departures between participants?
* What types of insights could be gained if each participant was given a blog to record their thoughts and perspectives?
* Are there other ways that mulitmedia tools such as podcasts, screencasts or videos could be used to inform the participants about issues?
Overcoming the Echo Chamber Effect
* What type of communication strategies could be used make one's partisan ideology more transparent and open to dissenting points of view?
* Do larger worldviews and value systems influence a subset of private attitudes, public opinion and behavior?
[Tag: sxsw]