Why you are interested in this research project (e.g. Do you have experience with this topic? Does it sound cool and you just want to find out more? etc.)
I started becoming interested in civic tech while working as a grad student union organizer in Berkeley before moving to Seattle 5 years ago. In 2017, I worked for Jon Grant's City Council campaign, which operated on a shoe-string budget and strongly relied on technology for voter outreach. Inspired by the experience, I started to become more involved in local politics and particularly housing justice and transportation activism. This experience led me to become more invested in civic tech after seeing how it can both engage people by eliminating access barriers to civic community for some, and alienate by creating new barriers for others. I've also casually been using datasets from the City of Seattle Open Data portal to practice using Python and R, which has led me to a lot of civic data related research questions that I haven't had an outlet for yet in my time in the iSchool.
Spend 5 minutes googling some of the keywords. What did you find? What ideas or questions does this spark for you in working on this research project?
There's obviously a ton of rich stuff out there around civic tech engagement, but a few questions that immediately pull my interest:
How do civic tech advocates ensure that civic tech apps don't deprecate as technology evolves? How do you ensure that government stays innovative/keeps up with changing technology?
How do we measure engagement meaningfully? How do we distinguish between "use" and "engagement"?
Do civic tech applications encourage new populations of civic engagement or is use "translated" from already-engaged populations?
What role does interoperability play in accessibility of civic tech apps? Since the definition of civic tech remains flexible, what platforms/technologies encourage the broadest and/or most effective use?
What realms of civic engagement have civic tech most effectively mediated, and how do we measure this effect?
What possibilities exist to use civic tech to engage underrepresented and/or under-engaged communities?
What is your availability for working on this research? (e.g. I can devote 5-10 hours per week for the next two quarters)
I can commit 7-10 hours a week to this research for Winter and Spring Quarter 2019.
Suggest a time to meet with me in the next seven days to discuss, and leave an email where I contact you.
Reachable at wjenkins@uw.edu
Wednesday, November 21, 12pm-1pm (via Zoom or Hangouts) or 3:30pm - 4:30 pm; Friday, November 22 anytime (via Zoom or Hangouts); Monday, November 26, 12pm-2pm (via Zoom or Hangouts) or 3:30pm - 4:30 pm; Tuesday, November 27 12pm - 1pm (via Zoom or Hangouts)
Why you are interested in this research project (e.g. Do you have experience with this topic? Does it sound cool and you just want to find out more? etc.) I started becoming interested in civic tech while working as a grad student union organizer in Berkeley before moving to Seattle 5 years ago. In 2017, I worked for Jon Grant's City Council campaign, which operated on a shoe-string budget and strongly relied on technology for voter outreach. Inspired by the experience, I started to become more involved in local politics and particularly housing justice and transportation activism. This experience led me to become more invested in civic tech after seeing how it can both engage people by eliminating access barriers to civic community for some, and alienate by creating new barriers for others. I've also casually been using datasets from the City of Seattle Open Data portal to practice using Python and R, which has led me to a lot of civic data related research questions that I haven't had an outlet for yet in my time in the iSchool.
Spend 5 minutes googling some of the keywords. What did you find? What ideas or questions does this spark for you in working on this research project? There's obviously a ton of rich stuff out there around civic tech engagement, but a few questions that immediately pull my interest:
What is your availability for working on this research? (e.g. I can devote 5-10 hours per week for the next two quarters) I can commit 7-10 hours a week to this research for Winter and Spring Quarter 2019.
Suggest a time to meet with me in the next seven days to discuss, and leave an email where I contact you. Reachable at wjenkins@uw.edu Wednesday, November 21, 12pm-1pm (via Zoom or Hangouts) or 3:30pm - 4:30 pm; Friday, November 22 anytime (via Zoom or Hangouts); Monday, November 26, 12pm-2pm (via Zoom or Hangouts) or 3:30pm - 4:30 pm; Tuesday, November 27 12pm - 1pm (via Zoom or Hangouts)