American democracy is premised on informed citizens engaging in self-governance. Yet today, many citizens are disenchanted with their government at every level and uninterested in participating. They are, however, interested in their smartphones— use of mobile and digital technologies has skyrocketed in the past few years, and created a significant communication gap between governments and the governed.
On a more encouraging note, a burgeoning “open governance” movement is using information and communications technologies to foster accountability, transparency, and trust; open up traditionally closed systems, and transform governance. Collaborative technologies like social media are enabling two-way information channels between citizens and governments, helping solve problems at the local, state, and national levels. Digital technologies also have the potential to reduce costs to governments and citizens, and to create opportunities for more transparent, participatory, and responsive government.
Some national governments are already embracing the movement. Estonia, for example, has moved far beyond its recent 20th-century post-Soviet bureaucratic state and redesigned its government service systems online. The system boasts an electronic identification system for its population and an e-healthcare system, in which citizens own their own data. Estonians use a digital healthcare prescription system, their education system is anchored online, and 25 percent of the population voted online in the last elections.
The US is making some steps in this direction. Governments at all levels are releasing more and more machine readable-data so that NGOs, entrepreneurial for-profits, software designers, and the media can model new ways to open up and use data. The city of Chicago is a leader in this effort, releasing large amounts of data on everything from crime rates and educational data to health information.
Federal and local governments are also working to expand their focus from solely providing government services to emphasizing two-way communication and feedback loops with citizens. “Wethe People” is a site where citizens can start online petitions, and where those that gain the most traction receive official responses from the White House. Cities like New York are experimenting with participatory budgeting. And the Madison project, developed by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), encourages participatory legislation at the congressional level. For-profit and non- profit innovators have also developed applications that afford, to name a few, accessible zoning regulations, organized disaster relief efforts, and real-time transportation schedules.
But there is still much work to be done. To advance the effort, the Institute’s Communications and Society Program convened its 2012 Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) in Aspen this summer to design a series of tangible solutions to address proximate problems facing the open governance movement. Participants included media and technology experts, government officials, academics, and leading NGO directors. Notably joining the conversation were Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen, White House Digital Strategist Macon Phillips, Ushahidi Executive Director Juliana Rotich, and a number of up-and-coming technology innovators with expertise in designing platforms and applications for open governance systems.
Participants focused on several key objectives: Encouraging citizens to get engaged in the democratic process through a common narrative; creating more active government services through smarter use of data; developing innovative approaches to traditionally governmental projects; building a broad constituency around data to spur demand for information; and helping governments procure non-traditional vendors inexpensively.
AN AMERICAN NARRATIVE
OF SELF-GOVERNANCE
A critical problem facing the push for open governance is citizens’ overall apathy and general lack of engagement in the democratic process. The disengagement is cyclical—frankly, if more American citizens demanded good government, they would likely get it. Among technologists, active NGOs, and some government workers, there is a tremendous amount of innovative work underway to develop products and services that encourage citizens to participate in governmental processes. For the early adopters, the successes are evident, but the general public is not paying attention. One solution to this problem is to use a familiar narrative to draw citizens into the open governance cause and foster a desire for engagement.
There is plenty of evidence that narratives and storytelling affect change and motivate populations. The Tea Party movement gained momentum by reverting back to a traditional American narrative of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility. The anti-SOPA movement, a “net-roots” activity fighting the Stop Online Piracy Act in Congress, also gained popularity, and ultimately success, through a relatable narrative about Internet freedom and bottom-up governance.
To spur broad citizen engagement, FOCAS participants recommended the creation of a new campaign with an American self-governance narrative: All Americans should be able to relate to a call to reclaim our founding history of self-governance in order to create something great. First steps to achieving this include identifying fundamental elements that contribute to national anxiety and efficacy; gathering micro-narratives that are important to citizens; and identifying core aspirations and concerns Americans have in common.
By using these cues through transmedia—the telling of a story across multiple platforms and formats using digital technologies—we can create an empowering, non-partisan narrative that demonstrates to citizens what is possible when they engage with their government and utilize available resources. This message would be more effective if it is supplemented with direct availability to social services, leading people to the channels most likely to help them spark change.
Starlight Runner Entertainment CEO Jeff Gomez explained the advantages of creating interactive stories and pulling in complementary micro-narratives
around massive amounts of data over multiple media platforms. Simply, he told the audience, common narratives will help connect people to one another and provoke discussion, realization, and ultimately action. The goal of integrating transmedia in this narrative is to inspire citizens to become part of the story and engage with their communities and government.
ACTIVE GOVERNMENT SERVICE THROUGH SMARTER DATA USE
Technological advances are allowing governments to move their services online and release more data to the public. But there is a disconnect when it comes to the public knowing what information and services are available when they need and want them, particularly during critical transitions, like moving to a new city, starting school, or being diagnosed with a health condition. This disconnect poses a problem for residents, service providers, and governments alike. To be effective, governments need to enhance their services to be more relevant and interactive through smarter data use.
To address this issue, FOCAS participants recommended building a framework through a public/private partnership to streamline the collection and use of data in order to make information accessible. Divided into three phases, the first requirement is to build the platform and service that will allow users to provide coordinates, and the platform to then draw on sources of data from government to deliver relevant information. Many additional applications can be built on this system.
While some work along these lines was already underway before the forum, the city of Chicago and the Smart Chicago Collaborative have moved forward since the meeting to bring this first phase to fruition.
The second phase involves learning about users’ needs. The system would be able to gather details about users and determine what information they need, and when. This allows for active rather than passive information delivery. For example, if the users identify that they have recently moved to the city, they can opt-in for continuous, updated information about new resident meetings, city events, or transportation schedules. Phase three focuses on marketing and the delivery of the information and services. Notable in the platform’s design is the place-based architecture. It uses location data as opposed to identities, though identity and privacy protections will need to factor into the overall design.
UNDERTHROWING THE GOVERNMENT
A complementary citizen-centric solution for innovative governance developed by FOCAS participants is an idea called “Operation: Underthrow.” Today, getting collective buy-in for a government-sponsored project or service is frequently a cumbersome, time-consuming public policy process that often leads to sub-optimal results. To remedy this, participants recommended the creation of an organic, technology-based platform that facilitates the crowdsourcing of concrete, thoroughly vetted ideas for the public good.
As citizens contribute suggestions and projects, the ideas are vetted, ranked, designed, managed, crowd-funded and then implemented by groups of like-minded citizens. The concept has two objectives: to offer a mechanism to go around government to achieve collective goals, and provide a mechanism to give government opportunities and ideas it may not have considered. In addition, this platform can move beyond ideas to create new businesses via the crowd-funding model.
This is not necessarily a new concept. For years, entrepreneurs have worked outside the web of government to innovate and create new services: Consider the case of charter schools. While not always successful, many charter schools provide an important alternative educational experience. But the benefit to a technology-based platform is that individual entrepreneurs do not have to own ideas from start to finish. Technology allows for collaboration among people with shared interests and creates a sense of ownership and pride that is not often evident in public spaces.
A REQUEST FOR AWESOME
In addition to smarter data use and citizen-centric government service solutions, one of the keys to moving open governance forward is framing the conversation from a demand-side perspective rather than a supply-side perspective. Instead of focusing on how to get government to open up, the conversation should shift to motivating citizens to be interested consumers of data. As Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation Ellen Miller noted, citizen demand is critical in fostering accountability and transparency. The entire ecosystem becomes healthier, and more plausible, when citizens are active participants.
In order to spur demand at the community level, FOCAS participants recommended a plan for creating local, self-organized groups of information seekers to “adopt” a local data scientist, statistician, or data designer. Each member would contribute a specified amount of money to cover the living and research expenses of their data scientist. In return, the adopted scientist would research, manipulate, and analyze data to answer specific questions and illuminate relevant trends that the group is curious about but would not have the expertise to address on their own. The local information collected from the data scientist can demonstrate exactly how data
can be relevant in citizens’ lives. Thus, rather than by prosthelytizing about why data is important, the groups would teach by example, with the hope that
initially disinterested people would be inspired to engage with data.
FOCAS participants also recommended a new kind of procurement system that would enable cheaper innovative solutions to narrow-scope problems. Such solutions often require iterative development, which is not conducive to large-scale
contracts and the risk-adverse procedures of the existing procurement process. Instead of supplanting the current request for proposal process, participants recommended an augmented system called request for Awesome that incorporates new, less expensive, and non-standard projects.
It is still too early to see the full results from the FOCAs sessions. But we have already seen transmedia gurus invited to visit white house digital strategists, cities begin alternative procurement processes, and Chicago build a new platform for greater citizen involvement. It will ultimately take a lot more than technology to increase citizen engagement with governments. Like the use of social media in the Arab spring, digital technologies are only tools, dependent on the inspiration, determination, and execution of citizen activists. But by combining those intangibles with the versatility of personal, intelligent, and collaborative technologies, there will be a brighter future ahead for citizen-centric democratic governance.
Charlie Firestone is the executive director of the Institute’s Communications and Society Program. He also served as the Institute’s executive vice president for policy programs and international activities for three years. Previously, he was director of
the Communications Law Program at UCLA, and president of the Los Angeles Board of Telecommunications Commissioners. He has argued two Supreme Court cases, and has written numerous articles on communications law and policy.
Sarah Eppehimer is senior project manager for the Institute’s Communications and Society Program. She is responsible for a variety of programs, including the Forum on Communications and Society, the International Digital Economy Awards Project, and the Initiative on Smart Energy and Network Technologies.
