Digital democracy presentation to Poland via the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

1. Engaging Times
Steven Clift – @democracy
E-Democracy.org
Slides: e-democracy.org/learn

2. “Breaking the ice” …
means getting to
know you.

3. I grew up in Winona, Minnesota
… and married a Waldoch.

4. 1994 – I woke up
hearing my name
on the radio …
World’s 1st election
information website
E-debate, citizen
forum online

5. Global
media
attention
A new
Athens of
democracy??!
Media
over-hype.

6. Government by day,
Citizen by night ...

7. “Made for Internet” Candidate
Governor
Ventura
1998-2002
E-Democracy’s
Citizen
E-Forums
Pro Wrestler

8. Built the
digital town
square …
Local focus
Neighborhoods
today – up to 30%
of households - more

9. Today’s work, Ask me about …
• Digital engagement consultant -
po.st/engageclift
• E-Democracy.org – Leader…
•
• 1RadioNews.com – Android app
start-up company

10. 20 Years,
10 Lessons
Trends from digital history, so we
can better solve democratic problems.

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)

12. Then this happened …

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!

17. 1. About
people

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

22. 2. Groups
& Places

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

24. City Hall
In-person
Conversations
Shared on
Facebook
Your
Networks
Local
Media
Y
o
u
Local Biz
Neighbor#1
Local
Online
Groups
Join Group
Online public
space in “real”
community

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

27. 3. Democracy
Matters

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

30. Voting and elections

31. Presidential E-Campaign 2008 (Early)

32. Presidential E-Campaign 2016

33. Tweeter in Chief

34. Enhancing Legislative Information

35. E-Petitions, FOI

36. 4. Agenda-
setting

37. Sharing
power –
people
to
people

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

39. Beyond agenda-setting?
• Deliberation
• Consensus
decision-making
• Participatory
budgeting
• “Do something”
local projects?

40. 5. Generations
and Youth

41. #blacklivesmatter #hashtag
fueled
urgent news
and protest
info sharing
Good Fight
podcast

42. #blacklivesmatter
Day 1
Day 2
Day 11
#icantbreathe
in red
More

43. Text, Talk, and Act
part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health

44. Increasing voting
• Helps ease voter registration
• Ongoing reminders for voters

45. Started at 9 years old …

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

47. 6. New
Voices

48. Raising
New
Voices?
Numbers
show
divide
Source: PewInternet

49. Gaps in digital government use source
Over 50K
Income
2x
more likely

50. E-Democracy’s
New Voices
Slides
Video
More
Just Ask? Yes.

51. 7. Open data
and civic tech

53. Open Gov
Data
“demand”
from
technical
public,
government
has supply

54. Will work for
stickers ...
Software
development
and data use
for good in
society

55. Code for America

56. OKFN, Open Data Day “Hackathons”

57. With, not for

58. Civic Tech
Ecology -
Knight Foundation
documents $695
million
US invested –
Mostly companies

59. 8. Institutions
and policy

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

61. Open Government Partnership

63. US Open Government Directive
Policy led to action,
like data portal
Some states
and cities
following
lead

64. 9. Knowledge
sharing

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.

69. 10. Challenges

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

73. Conclusion

74. We are the
Engagement
Generation
Let’s build what can be. Together.

75. Thanks!
StevenClift.com
po.st/engageclift
e-democracy.org/learn
1RadioNews.com
@democracy
clift@e-democracy.org
+1-612-234-7072 - M

76. A place to put slides that are
moved out of presentations, but
can be shared
Extra Slides

77. The Email is Dead,
Long Live the Email
● Direct access - location, location, location
● E-Newsletters
● Personalized notification

78. Make it Visual
● Pictures, maps,
infographics
v. text “equality”
Over 1 mil comment to FCC.gov

79. Search for Joe - Tools of engagement
● Facebook
● Text/SMS
● Google Docs
● Online maps
● Signup Genius
● Weebly
● YouTube
● Paypal
● Email
● AKA “The Cloud”

80. Open Government Partnership
Commitments, Action Plans, IRM
Video on
YouTube

81. States with open data activity

82. Chicago is smart
● Smart Chicago
Collaborative
● CUTGroup - User testing
● Large Lots - Buy empty
lots near you from city
● SchoolCuts.org

83. Source:
Joel
Gurin

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

87. Related
Presentations

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

89. @POTUS joins Twitter himself May 18
POTUS = President of the United States

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