Two Job Openings at the Orton Family Foundation

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

Our partners at the Orton Family Foundation, an NCDD member organization, have recently announced two great job opportunities that we wanted to make sure all of our NCDD members hear about. Orton is looking for a new Senior Associate in Outreach & Strategic Partnerships and for a new Communications Associate, and we know that there are lots of NCDD members out there who would be great for the positions.

You can read about the current job openings, as well as future ones, on the Orton website at www.orton.org/who/jobs, or you can check out the descriptions below.

The Senior Associate position is described briefly below, and you can find the full job description by clicking here.

Senior Associate, Outreach & Strategic Partnerships: This full-time position reports to the Executive Director. Applicants must possess a strong commitment to the success and future of small towns and cities in rural areas and to the Orton Family Foundation’s philosophy and mission. Travel will be required and needed for achievement of goals.

The ideal candidate must: have a minimum 5 years of demonstrated success at identifying and forming purposeful relationships with program/organizational/business strategic partners; be a tech-savvy and people-oriented professional who can set and achieve goals to grow program support among individual supporters and mutually aligned groups; be able to persuasively communicate the Foundation’s Mission and Purpose; be a self-starter who can develop direction and activities for success. Primarily an externally focused position, candidate must have strong commitment to accountability to and communication with fellow Foundation staff that develop and implement mission driven program and communication activities. Must have a deep commitment to and passion for the life, culture, heritage, and future of rural small towns and cities across the USA.

And next, the brief description of the Communications Associate position is below, with the full job description available here.

Communications Associate: This full-time position will report to the Communications Director and work closely with Foundation staff to shape and strengthen the Foundation’s voice and coordinate its message, with particular emphasis on responsibility for the Foundation’s website and the promotion and marketing of its offerings.

The ideal candidate will have: at least 4-5 years experience in media and digital marketing; a college degree; strong written and verbal skills; extensive website management experience; public relations, publicity, and marketing experience; fluency in social media, blogs, and other online promotional channels; creative thinking and a willingness to take risks; knowledge of multimedia production and online distribution; mastery of Microsoft tools; ability to manage people and projects; a spirited, directed work style.

We encourage NCDD members to consider applying for either of these great positions by sending your resume and cover letter to cbertrand@orton.org. Make sure to share the openings with your friends and colleagues, too.

The application deadline is Friday, December 20th, so don’t let the date sneak up on you. Good luck to all the applicants!

New Open Data Policy Passes in Oakland, CA

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

This interesting piece of news is cross-posted from the Gov 2.0 Watch blog run by the Davenport Institute (an NCDD organizational member). The open data movement continues to grow with this new policy in Oakland, CA created with public participation. The original post is here.

Oakland Local and the Personal Democracy Forum reported last week on the Oakland City Council’s unanimous passage of legislation adopting an Open Data Policy last Tuesday. The Local reports:

The Open Data Policy itself was drafted in a unique, open, and collaborative manner. Over the summer, [councilmember] Schaaf reached out to the Urban Strategies Council, an organization working to eliminate poverty through education, opportunity, safety, and justice. Urban Strategies organized a public roundtable and an online Google Hangout, and invited experts and interested parties from around the country to join and participate in developing the Open Data Policy.

Miranda Neubauer, writing in Techpresident at the Personal Democracy Forum, provides further details on the legislation and how it builds on ongoing efforts to make Oakland city data available for the benefit of both policy analysts and the public.

You can read more from the Local here and more from Techpresident here.

Announcing the New Journal of Dialogue Studies

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

We were pleased to learn recently about the creation of the Journal of Dialogue Studies, a brand new academic publication dedicated to the theory and practice of dialogue. The JDS will be published by the Institute for Dialogue Studies, which is the academic platform of England’s Dialogue Society.

For us non-academics, this journal presents a great opportunity to engage on a deeper level with dialogue theory. For you NCDD members who are doing scholarly work on dialogue to reach a broader audience with your work. We highly encourage you to consider submitting your work to the Journal of Dialogue Studies by emailing your paper to journal@dialoguesociety.org. You can find more information on submissions here.

To understand a bit more about the new journal, check out the overview provided by its creators:

The Journal of Dialogue Studies is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed academic journal published twice a year. Its aim is to study the theory and practice of dialogue, understood provisionally as: meaningful interaction and exchange between people (often of different social, cultural, political, religious or professional groups) who come together through various kinds of conversations or activities with a view to increased understanding. The Editors welcome vigorous discussion of this provisional description, of dialogue’s effectiveness as a means of increasing understanding, and of other fundamental questions. The Journal brings together a body of original scholarship on the theory and practice of dialogue that can be critically appraised and debated. It publishes conceptual, research, and/or case-based works on both theory and practice, and papers that discuss wider social, cultural or political issues as these relate to the evaluation of dialogue. In this way, the Journal aims to contribute towards establishing ‘dialogue studies’ as a distinct academic field (or perhaps even emerging discipline).

The new journal will be published twice a year, and the first issue is already available online, and is focused on questions such as:

What arguments might there be for (or against) developing ‘dialogue studies’ as a distinct academic field (or perhaps even emerging discipline)?

What are the implications of doing so?

How might ‘dialogue studies’ be of use to academics, policy-makers and practitioners?

What do we mean by dialogue, dialogue theories and dialogue practices?

Where along the spectrum of fields is this field best placed?

We are encouraged to see the dialogue field continue to grow and deepen, and will definitely be keeping an eye on this new publication.

You can find out more about the Journal of Dialogue Studies by visiting www.dialoguesociety.org/publications/academia/829-journal-of-dialogue-studies.html.

“Are We There Yet?” Residents of Central Arkansas use online game to create roadmap for the future

Posted on November 22, 2013 by EngagingCities

This article first appeared on EngagingCities but we’d like to share it here with the NCDD community.

How do you get citizens to give feedback about their ideas for the community, while also educating them on the inherent repercussions of their preferences? How do you involve the public in your 30-year plan, while instilling an appreciation for how every decision affects the overall timeline and outcome?

You get them to play a game.

Playing a game – planning a future

The residents of Central Arkansas have been helping to shape their region’s future through a FlipSides game – an online interactive activity – that allows them to give feedback on topics such as transportation infrastructure, emerging trends, walkability, and funding decisions. Responsive infographics help players envision the effects their ideas would have on the completion timeline for each topic. Appropriately named “Are we there yet?”, this playful tool has provided valuable feedback to the decision-makers for the region’s planning effort, Imagine Central Arkansas.

Since it’s mid-June launch, hundreds of Arkansas residents have played “Are we there yet?”, both online and at events throughout the area. People were encouraged to access the game to let their voice be heard while learning more about the factors that influence the final plan. As an extra incentive, each player was registered in an iPad mini giveaway. The iPad was won by a Searcy resident, but the whole community will benefit from increased understanding of the give-and-take type of decision-making that is native to complex projects.

Real-time results

One of the most valuable features of the game is the immediate visual feedback players receive as they answer questions and define priorities. Not only do citizens get to choose how to achieve the regional vision, they get to experience in real-time the trade-offs that come with any decision or development.

As you proceed through the steps of the game, you move a slider or checkbox to indicate your opinion about a specific topic – for example, your level of support for policies that accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. If you indicate strong support, the timelines on the right will immediately show that based on your response, the completion of “Local Transit Goals” would be accomplished by the year 2046. If you had not supported the pedestrian policies, but instead supported investing in current transportation systems before creating new ones, the “Local Transit Goals” would not be accomplished until 2050. Each step of the game contains multiple options and layers of effects, all depending on one another, that demonstrate the complicated nature of a regional plan.

Distinguishing it from other popular engagement methods, the game’s focus goes beyond mere opinion-gathering. It requires players to think through the “flip sides” of each decision and to realize that every action will have impact on all other parts of the project. It puts the citizen briefly in the driver’s seat, making the decisions that planners must deal with every day. In short, “Are we there yet?” is more about HOW we get there than WHERE we are trying to go.

The next 30 years

Imagine Central Arkansas has provided “Are We There Yet?” as one of the last phases in their outreach strategy before drafting the final plan for the region. This means the choices and information in the game are more refined than during previous engagement efforts. Prior campaigns have included “Treasured Places”, where residents were encouraged to photograph, map, and digitally explore their favorite local places; and “Choose Your Future”, another digital activity that allowed people to prioritize about everything in their future, from parks to mobility to economy and beyond. In this latest outreach, residents are finally asked to try to balance their opinions with realities and challenges.

“Are we there yet?” is powered by FlipSides, an online platform that allows decision-makers to engage the public about specific trade-offs inherent to planning projects. While Imagine Central Arkansas has used the platform to focus on goals and timelines, FlipSides can be tailored to fit any project and provides planners with valuable feedback about public opinion and priorities.

As urban planners look for more relevant ways to engage their audience, many are turning to online tools, and games in particular. Arkansas has joined other cities in the experiment of playful public outreach, and the results have been positive. Perhaps the greatest benefit will be to the citizens who, in taking a moment to stop and think about the future of their community, will leave with a greater appreciation for the complexities of public planning.

Collaborate in IAP2′s Write-A-Thon on Friday

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

Do you have some free time this Friday, November 22nd? If you do, we hope you consider helping out our partners at IAP2 USA (an NCDD organizational member) with their “write-a-thon” event, a collaborative work day to improve its website and tidy up after IAP2 USA’s great 2013 conference. Whether you have 15 minutes or the whole afternoon, there’s something you can do to help!

You can sign up to help and find out more about the day on this Google Doc. Here’s how it will work:

The Communications Team will do some basic prep work, such as setting up an environment for collaborative writing, listing the areas that need work and providing the necessary instructions.

The day of the write-a-thon, November 22, we’ll start with a kick-off conference call in the morning. We’ll also schedule brief check-ins throughout the day (like every other hour or so) to make it easy for people who join late catch up quickly. These calls would also help us coordinate tasks among our distributed team and resolve any critical questions or issues.

While the main event will take place over the course of just one day, we will probably have everything ready a couple days prior so volunteers can get a head start if they want. And we’d probably leave it open for contributions over the weekend.

Updating the navigation structure of our website and swapping out content won’t actually take that long. Who knows, the new and improved website might launch before Thanksgiving.

A write-a-thon is a participatory method that has application for public participation work. This is a chance for you to experience this innovative format hands-on while also helping IAP2 USA. Win/win!

The whole day will kick off with a conference call briefing at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific (Dial-in info: 1-213-342-3000 / 268555#). This is what you can expect:

We’ll be using Google Docs as our collaboration environment. The main document is now up and running and has more details, incl. dial-in information for our kick-off call and several other check-ins throughout the day and a first list of content areas we plan to tackle.

If you’d like to get involved, here’s what you do:

Head to the Google Doc and add your name to the list of participants.

Join us for our 10-minute kick-off call at 9am Pacific (12pm Eastern) on Friday or for any of the other check-ins

If you have further questions, just get in touch (leave a comment below, contact the office or complete our volunteer sign-up form to join the communications team)

Remember, every small contribution is welcome! Whether you have 20 minutes to spare in between meetings, an hour at the airport or an entire afternoon — there will be plenty of opportunities to help out.

You can find more info about the event and how you can help below, or you can visit their blog to see the full original post or the final update. Thanks in advance to everyone who chips into this great collaborative process!

Learning from NYC’s Engagement

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

In the last month, Dr. Will Friedman of Public Agenda, an NCDD organizational member, has written two great pieces sharing his reflections on public problem-solving in his native New York City that were too good not to share wanted to share.

In his first piece on civic inclusion, Will shared a number of inspiring examples of ways that New Yorkers from traditionally marginalized groups and backgrounds have engaged in addressing the issues in their communities. And his second piece on post-Hurricane Sandy engagement in NYC, he shares reflections on the need for public, collaborative problem solving as the city grapples with the changes it needs to make to become more resilient after such disasters, and it included some choice nuggets of insight, not only for New Yorkers, but for all of us working in public engagement.

On grappling with the challenges posed to communities by major climate events, he writes:

The challenges we face are unprecedented and involve not only rebuilding and renewing, but adapting and reinventing. We have options to choose from, including constructing a flood barrier, changing building codes, or limiting waterfront development.

These are only a few of our options, and none of them are easy. Choosing the fairest and most effective approach will take creativity and collaboration, and a high-functioning democratic process that builds authentic public will and support for bold action…

The task will require more than just smart designers, power brokers and public officials influencing and making calls on policy. A challenge at this level will take thousands of small efforts on the parts of individuals and communities. It will take a number of big ideas, things that people can’t do by themselves, and things that the government can’t do without the support of the citizenry. Above all, it will require real collaboration, not only among national, state and local authorities, but also among leaders and citizens.

Importantly, he notes that what will not work is if “business-as-usual” continues, but also acknowledges that we also aren’t ready to engage publics at the scale and depth that is needed:

The age of backroom powerbrokers making the big decisions for the little people is over. At the same time, the mechanisms for engaging citizens in productive consideration of, and participation in, solutions are not in place.

The solutions we need do, in fact, lie in building the “high-functioning” democratic processes that Will points to. And building such process, ones that are suited to the urgent but complex decisions facing our society, is a challenge that fields like ours must be taking on.

But how do we get there? Will has some suggestions:

We do, though, know some of the principles and practices that can make a real difference in helping leaders and citizens collaborate to overcome arguments and move toward sustainable solutions. These include:

Knowing when to include the public. The public feels more strongly about having a voice in some decisions more than others. Taking the time to understand which is which saves time and energy.

Presenting the practical choices. Residents need to understand the realistic choices the city faces in ways they can understand and relate to. In particular, they need to understand the practical pros, cons and tradeoffs of different solutions. It’s not enough to explain what these options are to citizens, they need to know what they mean for their own lives and for the life of their city. In practical terms that all residents can understand, what are the benefits, downsides, costs and unknowns?

Providing the time and space for stable judgment. People need opportunities to not only consider the choices, but to talk to people about them, to hear others talking about them, and to let them sink in and percolate with their values, concerns and interests. Well-designed community dialogues, online discussion groups and thoughtful television and radio discussions are some of the ways in which raw public opinion becomes more stable and responsible.

We can’t afford for the current fruitful conversations to bog down in wishful thinking or petty bickering. To move forward, we must face our choices, weigh their tradeoffs, and work together to shape a vision for New York’s future.

If we succeed, we’ll not only do great things for a great city, we can also become an example of working through disagreements to make progress on a tough public problem together.

He may be right that the lessons that come from New York City’s attempts to work through its public problems can be instructive for the rest of the country, and indeed, the world. Certainly, the Big Apple has its own quirks and nuances, but if residents and communities in a city as large and diverse as NYC can build effective, equitable, and creative processes that genuinely engage the public in solving shared problems, it bodes well for the rest of us and the futures of our communities.

New York has enormous challenges ahead of it. But with collaboration-minded leaders like Will and many other NCDDers hard at work, it is absolutely possible that the city’s experiments in big, new forms of deliberation and engagement will provide a model that folks in our field can build on and adapt successfully to our own local realities.

We will be pulling for them.

You can read Will’s full articles at PublicAgenda.org. Find his civic inclusion piece here, and his post-Sandy piece here.

First Youth Participatory Budgeting Process in the US

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

The Participatory Budgeting Project, an NCDD organizational member, recently shared a press release announcing an exciting new initiative they are part of in Boston. You can read the statement below, or find the original post on the PBP blog by clicking here. It also mentions that PBP is seeking a youth organizer for this project, so if you know people who can be positive allies to the young people of this initiative, please share the job announcement with them.

For me, it is crucial for our society that youth have chances to engage in real, consequential democratic processes early and often. Like Takoma Park, MD’s recent decision to decrease the voting age to 16, this initiative represents a step toward more meaningful youth engagement in our government. I’m encouraged.

Boston’s Youth to Decide How to Allocate $1 Million of City’s FY14 Budget

City Announces Partnership with The Participatory Budgeting Project, Search for Youth Organizer Underway

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced the City of Boston is partnering with non-profit organization The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) on the pilot year of the City’s youth participatory budgeting process. For the first time, the City of Boston has set aside $1 million for youth to allocate through a year-long budgeting process. Through participatory budgeting, young Bostonians will identify projects to improve their communities, vet those projects, consider trade-offs, and vote on how to spend the $1 million. The process will be a collaboration between PBP, the Mayor’s Youth Council and Boston Centers for Youth and Families.

“Our most important collection of talent lies in our young people,” Mayor Menino said. “It is so important to have our young people engaged in government, and to make sure their voices are heard when it comes to improving their neighborhoods. This process puts the power in their hands, and will show them what kind of impact they can make on our city.”

A search is underway for a youth organizer who will be responsible for engaging young Bostonians in the process and working closely with both PBP and City of Boston staff. Those interested in learning more about the Youth Organizer position should visit: www.idealist.org/view/job/DgD2ZBfCFz5P/.

Young residents, community-based organizations and youth advocates will come together in a Steering Committee to begin to discuss the design and execution of the process. The Mayor’s Youth Council has invited high school teens and youth advocates from across the city to an info session on December 10 at 5:45 p.m. in City Hall. Those who would like to RSVP for the session should email: YouthCouncil@boston.gov.

“Participatory budgeting is a real school of democracy. Young people across Boston will learn democracy by doing – and decide how to spend $1 million on concrete improvements to their communities. I’m excited to work with the City and other community partners to build this groundbreaking new model for youth engagement and empowerment,” said Josh Lerner, Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project.

There is already a buzz in Boston about the “1 Million Dollar Question.” Mayor’s Youth Council representatives and allies from neighborhoods across the city have begun asking their peers how $1 million could be spent to make Boston an even better city for youth. “We are going to get a chance to identify items that are important to us, to have our voices heard, and to see projects that will benefit the city for a long time to come,” said Kayla Knight, a Roxbury Representative on the Mayor’s Youth Council.

In April, Mayor Menino presented his $2.6 billion Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 and five year $1.8 billion Capital Plan, including $196 million in new FY 2014 project authorizations. The FY 2014 budget includes initiatives that keep Boston at the forefront of reinvention: changes at Boston Public Schools to increase access to quality, new housing to meet the needs of young professionals and middle-class families, and online learning for Boston’s neighborhoods. At the core of the budget is a desire to continue to build neighborhoods, provide residents an unparalleled quality of life, and support neighbors as they help one another.

Participatory budgeting originated in Brazil in 1989 and has been successful in U.S. cities including New York, Vallejo (CA), and Chicago. There are now more than 1,500 participatory budgets around the world, most at the city level. Participatory budgeting has also been used for counties, states, housing authorities, schools and school systems, universities, coalitions, and other public agencies. For more information on participatory budgeting, visit: www.participatorybudgeting.org.

More Responses to the launch of PB Boston:

“I am thrilled that the City of Boston has embraced a “PB” process for its youth. What better way to teach young people the value and importance of civic engagement than to give them real power over real money. Kudos to Boston for making PB a part of its budgetary process and putting its young people front and center in its implementation.” — Chicago Alderman Joe Moore, who launched the first participatory budgeting process in the US in 2009.

“It is great to have the City of Boston joining the Participatory Budgeting family. At its best, government is what we do together to strengthen our communities. We have seen young people in New York take this charge and embrace their citizenship through Participatory Budgeting.” — New York City Council Member Brad Lander, who worked with colleagues in Council to launch PB in NYC in 2011.

“Bringing participatory budgeting to Boston is in line with our city’s progressive history as hub for democratic innovation. It’s a new form of civic engagement that Mayor Menino has rightfully placed in the hands of our city’s young people to pilot. We look forward to working with Mayor-Elect Walsh to incorporate this effort into his broader vision for a more inclusive and engaged city.” — Aaron Tanaka, director of the Center for Economic Democracy and former executive director of the Boston Workers Alliance

“As governments everywhere devise new innovations to re-engage citizens, Boston’s Youth Participatory Budgeting initiative is an exciting innovation in participation and civic education that focuses on a set of people usually left out politics and government: young people. It will be exciting to see the proposals and projects that they develop over the coming year.” — Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Announcing the Next Stage Facilitation Intensive, Jan. 8-10

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

We are pleased to highlight the post below, which came from NCDD Sustaining Member Becky Colwell of Integral Facilitator via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Explore what is happening on the developmental edge of facilitation, and what it means to you — join Integral Facilitator for our Next Stage Facilitation intensive training this January 8th-10th, 2014, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In this three-day workshop, you’ll learn new ways to be a more Integral Facilitator who can make any dialogue and collaboration more successful and to help your groups, teams, stakeholders, and cultures cohere. There has never been a better time than now to invest in developing your awareness and capacities as a facilitative leader.

We promise a deep dive into your personal presence, and more than a taste of integral expression in groups. Engage in compelling conversations about your work with groups, and try new practices that stretch the embodiment of who you are in this increasingly important role.

Engage yourself more fully in service of the future that wants to emerge
Meet the challenge of more complex real-life issues and conflict
Integrate the interior and exterior experience of groups
Cut through the clutter of techniques and methods to get to the heart of the matter
Navigate conflict, shadow, emotions and power politics
Enjoy richer, deeper and more satisfying engagements

Our fans speak for us:

“Next Stage Facilitation is the highest iteration of working with groups which will actually create a real and positive change in the world.” — Dorothy Tanguay

For more information, visit us at www.integralfacilitator.com/programs/next-stage

Birmingham Joins Mental Health Conversation with NIFI

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

In addition today’s exciting news about the Text, Talk, Act project, we are pleased to share more good news about the Creating Community Solutions effort. This post comes from our partners at the National Issues Forums Institute, sharing the recent announcement that they will be helping the city of Birmingham, AL engage its public in mental health issues. Read more below, or find the original post here.

On November 1, 2013, Birmingham City Mayor William Bell hosted a press conference where he announced the launch of a public forum series on the topic of mental health and mental illness. Others who spoke at the press conference included Bill Muse, president of the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI); Stephanie McCladdie, regional administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA); and other Birmingham area mental health officials.

The following is excerpted from Alabama’s 13 WVTM-TV website posting about the press conference:

“Birmingham is one of ten cities around the country to answer President Obama’s call for a national conversation about mental health with a broad based dialogue to discuss how mental health issues affect our communities and to discuss topics related to the mental health of our young people,” according to a news release from the city. “These discussions will lead to action plans designed to improve mental health programs and services for our families, schools and communities. The discussions, entitled Mental Health: What Are The Options?, will take place in the form of ten forums in Birmingham. Data collected from the forums will be provided to SAMSHA and aid in the further formation of programming in the Birmingham area.”

This Birmingham, Alabama citywide forums project is part of a large, nationwide conversation project about mental health and mental illness called Creating Community Solutions that was launched with a White House press conference in June, 2013.

More information about the nationwide project, how to join in the national conversation, and free resources and materials to use in local communities for conversations about mental health and mental illness, can be found at the project website at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org.

The original NIFI post plus other links can be found here: www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=25207&catID=23664.

Reflections on Technology from Davenport

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

This post comes via the Gov 2.0 Watch blog, which is a project the Davenport Institute (an NCDD organizational member). You can read the post below or find the original here. We think a lot about using technology to enhance democracy here at NCDD, and we wanted to share this post that reminds that technology can be used for good and for ill. It’s a tool, not a panacea.

Technology and Democracy

While technology offers many interesting possibilities for strengthening democracy, it is important not to get so caught up in the promise that we forget technology is a tool rather than a solution. Comparing and contrasting surveillance practices in China and the U.S., Kentaro Toyama argues in The Atlantic that technology only reinforces “underlying political forces” already present in a society, which may or may not be democratic:

What both Chinese censorship and American surveillance show is that there is nothing inherently democratizing about digital networks, at least not in the political sense. Far-reaching communication tools only make it easier to impose constraints on the freedom of expression or the right to privacy. Never before have Chinese censors had it so easy in identifying subversive voices, and never before has the NSA been able to eavesdrop on the private communications of so many people.

Toyama raises interesting questions about the relationship between communications technology, democracy, and political freedoms:

Many of us take advantage of online government services, and electronic voting machines can streamline elections. So, the digital can support democracy. But, the reason why the Internet seems “democratizing” in America is exactly because America is a democracy. We have free speech online because we have free speech offline, not the other way around…What does this mean for anyone working to spread or strengthen democracy? It means that focusing on new technological tools is far less important than focusing on the underlying politics.

You can read the full article here.

Two years ago, Toyama wrote about technology’s role in widespread social changes, with reference to uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen that sparked what came to be known as the Arab Spring. You can read this earlier article here.

Contributor: Benjamin Peterson, Pepperdine School of Public Policy, MPP Candidate ’15

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