Key lessons from twenty years of e-democracy, open government, civic technology, and citizen participation online. Extended slide deck combining almost all slides used by Steven Clift across 14 presentations across Taiwan and the Philippines to different audiences.

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

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

3. 1994 – I woke up
hearing my name
on the radio …
World’s 1st election
information website
E-debate, citizen
forum online

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

5. Government by day,
Citizen by night ...

6. “Made for Internet” Candidate
Governor
Ventura
1998-2002
Citizen
E-Forums
Pro Wrestler

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

8. Today’s work, Ask me about …
• KHub.Net – Knowledge Hub
online groups for government
and NGOs globally
• E-Democracy.org – Leader…
mySociety/Poplus.org outreach
• 1RadioNews.com – Android app
small start-up company

9. 20 Years,
10 Lessons
Trends from digital history, so we
can better solve democratic problems.

10. 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

11. 1. About
people

12. Social Media – Private Life First
… about “Public Life” second

13. You are in the center
“networked individualism”
You
Friends
Family
Communities
Prof. Peers
Public
“Entities”

14. “My husband is missing …”
10+ e-tools used in
“crowd-led” search

15. 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

16. 2. Groups
& Places

17. 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

18. 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

19. Places and Information
• Information (data) from
government often geographical
• Personalized notification
on topics related to place
• With group engagement …
10x more empowering

20. 3. Democracy
Matters

21. Democracy Matters
• We must bring “democratic intent”
forward for real change
• Marketing v. engagement tension
• Governance that can … listen, engage,
and respond … people working together

22. Democratic Goals - Strategies
• Public Trust and Transparency:
Information Access
• Accountability: Budget/Spending Data
• Better Decisions: Digital Public
Engagement
• Effective Programs: Knowledge
Exchange with Online Groups

23. Voting and elections

24. Presidential E-Campaign 2008 (Early)

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

26. Presidential E-Campaign 2016

27. Enhancing Legislative Information

28. E-Petitions, FOI

29. E-Law, E-Courts
• More access than ever tensions
over further access, who pays,
and “what is in Google” privacy

30. 4. Agenda-
setting

31. Sharing
power –
people
to
people

32. 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

33. Social Media Strategies –
Key for organizations to
raise vital voices, influence
citizen dialogue online

34. Related
Presentations

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

36. 5. Generations
and Youth

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

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

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

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

41. Started at 9 years old …

42. Facebook-Native Politicians
● Minneapolis elected 7 new council
members, average age 32 - more slides
● Councillors asking public questions,
directly engaging, Mayor posts daily
● Personal profiles key - Pages secondary

43. 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?

44. 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

45. 6. New
Voices

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

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

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

49. 7. Open data
and civic tech

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

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

53. Code for America

54. Poplus, OKFN, Open Data Day

55. With, not for

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

57. 8. Institutions
and policy

58. 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

59. Open Government Partnership

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

62. 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

63. 9. Knowledge
sharing

64. Knowledge exchange, sharing
• Tools of online engagement to do
public service work – better
output
• Lessons and practices shared
across governments, civil society,
and more

65. Open Gov Facebook Group
● Secret strategy:
One click to
link digital
political leaders
to #opengov
● 3660 members,
100+ countries

66. 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

67. 10. Challenges

68. Big Challenges
• Loudest voices, conflict
• Filtered for similarity, not diversity
• Continuous evolution in
commercial services
• Loss of control to reach more
people where they are online

69. Democratic Open Data Deficit
● Stronger
o Budget and spending
o National politician info
o Politicized accountability
● Weaker
o Transparency for
engagement
o Public meetings
o Local democracy
o Timely notice
● Projects to
Watch
o Open Civic Data
o Poplus “Components” –
mySociety, g0v.tw, et al
o Google Civic API
o OpenStates
o Free Law Founders
o Councilmatic

70. Conclusion

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

72. Thanks!
StevenClift.com
e-democracy.org/learn
KHub.net
1RadioNews.com
@democracy
clift@e-democracy.org
+1-612-234-7072 - M

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

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

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

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

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

78. States with open data activity

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

80. Source:
Joel
Gurin