One promise of civ-gov tech is that it helps optimize democratic government, particularly in the cities where most people live. This panel explores how well that promise is being kept and how to improve things if it's not.
SPEAKERS
Amanda Brink is a Wisconsin-based political operative with over 12 years of experience in the field. A utility infielder, happy to assist with campaign management, overall strategy, fundraising, organizing, operations, compliance, digital, press, training, recounts, logistics, advance, and more. Former O.F.A., H.F.A., Tony for WI, Burns for W.I., Dems in Philly, D.N.C., WisDems, Raj for Madison, and more. Currently working for Organizing Empowerment, helping organizations put relationships back into organizing.
Michelle Kobayashi M.S.P.H. is the Senior Vice President for Innovation for Polco/National Research Center. She began her career as a research analyst for the City of Boulder in 1989 and then helped to found National Research Center (N.R.C.) in 1995. Michelle has 30 years of experience conducting research, surveys, and policy studies for local, state, and federal government. She has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books on research techniques and trained hundreds of government and non-profit workers on evaluation methods, survey research, and uses of data for community decisionmaking and performance measurement. Last year, N.R.C. and Polco, a tech company providing a digital engagement platform, merged, creating new opportunities for Michelle to modernize her survey work and the methods she uses to bring residents and stakeholders' voices into local governing.
Micah L. Sifry is the Founder and President of Civic Hall, curator of the annual Personal Democracy Forum, and editor of Civicist, Civic Hall's news site. From 2006-16 he was a senior adviser to the Sunlight Foundation, which he helped found. Micah currently serves on the boards of Consumer Reports and the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science. He is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Civic Tech in the Global South (co-edited with Tiago Peixoto) (World Bank, 2017); A Lever and a Place to Stand: How Civic Tech Can Move the World (PDM Books, 2015), with Jessica McKenzie; The Big Disconnect: Why the Internet Hasn't Transformed Politics (Yet) (OR Books, 2014); and Wikileaks and the Age of the Transparency (OR Books, 2011). In 2012, Micah taught "The Politics of the Internet" as a visiting lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School. From 1997-2006, he worked closely with Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on comprehensive campaign finance reform, as its senior analyst. Before that, Micah was an editor and writer with The Nation magazine for thirteen years. He is the author of Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America(Routledge, 2002), co-author with Nancy Watzman of Is That a Politician in Your Pocket? Washington on $2 Million a Day (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), co-editor of Rebooting America, and co-editor of The Iraq War Reader (Touchstone, 2003) and The Gulf War Reader (Times Books, 1991).
