Experimental Modes of Civic Engagement in Civic Tech (Meet People Where They Are)

[equivalentideas]

Launch of free book http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/experimental-modes.pdf

Write up http://civichall.org/civicist/a-more-verdant-civic-process/

Although we civic technologists have found power in our ability to create tools, it doesn’t mean that just by creating technology we are sharing that power.

So what does it mean to share power? What does civic technology look like if we were to approach it differently? ... Last week, during a workshop I held on this research at this year’s Code for America Summit, we released a book with our findings: Experimental Modes of Civic Engagement in Civic Tech (Meet People Where They Are). You can download a free PDF of the book here or buy the paperback version on Amazon.

Experimental Modes is our first attempt to answer the question “what does it mean to build with, not for?” in a nuts and bolts way, based on the real experience of practitioners who do the work. Through a combination of independent review and in-depth self-reporting, I identified five common strategies (“modes”) and a number of associated tactics that civic technologists can (and do) deploy to integrate community perspectives and deep engagement into the work—and to better integrate themselves into the communities they work for.

The technologies I studied varied from QR codes to radio towers, mobile apps to hotlines, but the strategies involved were largely the same. Chief among them: invest in relationship-building, partner with hyperlocal groups with intersecting interests, lead from common physical and cultural spaces, build the tool that fits (not the tool you want), and be a community participant. Not just a participant in any community. A participant in the community you are trying to serve.

[equivalentideas]

Unfortunately there's just not enough time to get my head around this for this month, and the newsletters already packed. Dropping it.