[liberationtech] Can Technology Support Democracy?

Tue May 5 01:55:29 CEST 2020

A couple of comments for Raymond and Doug on their messages below:

Raymond, I know you didn't say this exactly, but I wanted to share that I don't see a consistent left-right split around the world (or even in Europe) on the issue of how much to apply a lockdown. For example, one of the more leftish governments in Europe is in Sweden (a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens), which has put into practice policies and theories of the virus that have become associated with the right in the U.S.  Dr. Johan Giesecke who advised the Swedish government and has criticized the Conservative U.K. Government's restrictive policies has put forward a view of the virus reminiscent of Dr. John Ioannidis's views in the U.S., which have been picked up by right-wing U.S. media such as Fox News, even though Ioannidis himself credibly says he has no party political agenda. I think some on the left have seen an analogy between the science around Covid-19 and climate science, and may believe that a similar level of the data and scientific consensus that exist for the climate crisis are also present for Covid-19. But this is not the case at all -- there is much less consensus among epidemiologists about the underlying models, and there is still much less of the needed data to inform Covid-19 policy, than there are for global warming. It also seems to me that a social justice perspective would find plenty to criticize in policies that are throwing millions of people out of their jobs, and disproportionately hurting the poor and people of color.

I am not going to get into a debate on this list about the views of Giesecke and Ioannidis, and I don't want to make any claims about whether lockdowns were the best policies to enact in March. Others can argue that if they want. I just wished to point out that the supposed left-right alignment being put forward on this issue is built on shaky foundations.

And to Doug... You can see data and graphs for your county (and any other in the U.S. at https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/26/covid-19-tracker/.
[https://www.statnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/corona-tracker-social-image-1-1024x576.jpg]<https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/26/covid-19-tracker/>
The Covid-19 Tracker - STAT<https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/26/covid-19-tracker/>
As the virus that causes Covid-19 spreads worldwide, this dashboard offers a snapshot of confirmed cases by geographic location. Click a country name to get a more detailed geographic breakdown at the state, province, or county level. Learn more.
www.statnews.com
Respectfully,
Todd Davies

Todd Davies  (he/him or they/them)

email: davies at stanford.edu

web: web.stanford.edu/~davies<https://web.stanford.edu/~davies>

Current location:

Stanford House

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Oxford OX1 4EL UK

phone: +44 (0)1865 253105

Main office:

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office: 460-040C

________________________________
From: LT <lt-bounces at lists.liberationtech.org> on behalf of Raymond Saner <saner at diplomacydialogue.org>
Sent: Monday, May 4, 2020 1:41 PM
To: 'Doug Schuler' <douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
Cc: 'LT' <lt at lists.liberationtech.org>
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Can Technology Support Democracy?

Dear Doug,

Thanks, over here in Europe- the transition has started towards post Covid-19, if such a post will be possible without second wave of infections. The parties to the right are pushing for re-opening of the economy, a bit like in the USA. They hope to get back to ex ante coronavirus but nobody knows if this will work out.

In regards to statistics, the information made available by the federal government was always 2-3 days late and not sufficiently disaggregated which made some of us wonder whether they did not want to reveal too much information or whether it was just simply inadequate technology know-how.

People linked to the University of Zurich picked up the sluggish process and put data on an ongoing basis out for everybody to read. The date is now quite disaggregated but some data analysis is not possible because the cantons-states do not collect sufficient data.

Still, check it out, corona-data.ch

Best regards
Raymond

From: Doug Schuler [mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org]
Sent: 04 May 2020 20:48
To: Raymond Saner <saner at diplomacydialogue.org>
Cc: LT <lt at lists.liberationtech.org>
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Can Technology Support Democracy?

Thanks Raymond for the feedback on my article. I need to check out your papers but I agree that citizen engagement is key to the success of democracy — and to the SDG work. One of the big problems I feel is building and maintaining the networks that are working towards these goals. One of the important aspects of monitoring I suspect is having the visibility. We see that to some degree with the flattening of the curve idea but in spite of all the all the data scientists in the world I'm still not seeing useful curves being generated daily that represent smaller locations. I live in King County, Washington (where Seattle) is and I don't see the daily curve for the county or city. We can't see the progress. Maybe like a baseball team that didn't know its standing in the league.

I looked at some of the issues with my article in City Atlas. I focused on patterns and pattern languages to help coordinate people's actions in relation to the Green New Deal.

http://newyork.thecityatlas.org/lifestyle/the-green-new-deal-is-the-real-deal/

I'm currently working with some colleagues on a paper that focuses on patterns and pattern languages to address wicked problems. It also would depend on tech support.

Interested in what others on the list have to say but I do hope that we can keep talking about this. I'm working with several individuals and groups who are trying to go to the next level — and part of that is thinking about what the heck that might mean.

Thanks Raymond!

— Doug

On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 10:30 AM Raymond Saner <saner at diplomacydialogue.org<mailto:saner at diplomacydialogue.org>> wrote:

Dear Doug,

thanks for drawing our attention to your article “Can Technology support Democracy”, a very timely article, well arguments and well sourced.

we are involved in the SDG implementation (http://www.csend.org/publications/agenda-2030) and technology plays a very important part in the implementation process or better stated- could play an important part if designed well.

for instance, the monitoring process could be much more developed. The SDGs have a 4 year cycle of reviews but the ongoing monitoring often is either “forgotten” or turned into a mini-evaluation with heavy use of IT data, data experts and complex data analytics which are not easily understood by the citizens.

our article describes some of the difficulties of citizen based monitoring of the SDGs: http://www.csend.org/publications/agenda-2030/497-monitoring-the-sdgs-digital-and-social-technologies-to-ensure-citizen-participation-inclusiveness-and-transparency

how could the SDG monitoring process be based on the SDG principles of inclusiveness, participation and transparency?

looking forward to your thoughts

best regards

Raymond

From: LT [mailto:lt-bounces at lists.liberationtech.org<mailto:lt-bounces at lists.liberationtech.org>] On Behalf Of Doug Schuler
Sent: 02 May 2020 19:33
To: LT <lt at lists.liberationtech.org<mailto:lt at lists.liberationtech.org>>
Subject: [liberationtech] Can Technology Support Democracy?

Just found this in my drafts folder... Maybe I sent this out earlier and maybe it's less relevant given the pandemic but here it is ... Thanks!

------

I thought I'd share my new article. It came out yesterday in Volume 1, issue 1 of the journal
Digital Government: Research and Practice (DGOV).  Just so you could get the gist I included the abstract below. Here's the url just in case... https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3352462

Thanks!!!

Can Technology Support Democracy?

The utopian optimism about democracy and the internet has given way to disillusionment. At the same time, given the complexity of today's wicked problems, the need for democracy is critical. Unfortunately democracy is under attack around the world, and there are ominous signs of its retreat. How does democracy fare when digital technology is added to the picture? Weaving technology and democracy together is risky, and technologists who begin any digital project with the conviction that technology can and will solve “problems” of democracy are likely to be disappointed. Technology can be a boon to democracy if it is informed technology. The goal in writing this essay was to encourage people to help develop and cultivate a rich democratic sphere. Democracy has great potential that it rarely achieves. It is radical, critical, complex, and fragile. It takes different forms in different contexts. These forms are complex and the solutionism promoted by the computer industry and others is not appropriate in the case of democracies. The primary aim of technology in the service of democracy is not merely to make it easier or more convenient but to improve society's civic intelligence, its ability to address the problems it faces effectively and equitably.

--

Douglas Schuler

douglas at publicsphereproject.org<mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>

Twitter: @doug_schuler

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Creating the World Citizen Parliament

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--

Douglas Schuler

douglas at publicsphereproject.org<mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>

Twitter: @doug_schuler

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Public Sphere Project

     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/

Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good

      http://lists.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce

Creating the World Citizen Parliament

     http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament

Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (project)

     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv<http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>

Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (book)

 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
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