Evan Weissman calls it 鈥渧oting every day.鈥� For this Denver artist, activist and civic engagement expert, voting for government officials who you believe represent your interests is just one piece of the citizenship puzzle.
Important decisions are being made every day at the local level, at venues like city council or zoning board meetings. However, in those venues, public participation is often limited to those dealing with an emergency situation or people with ample spare time (retired, flexible work schedules, etc.).听
Warm Cookies of the Revolution works to engage those whose voices are underrepresented in local decision-making. Their work is not technical in nature -- in fact, they rely on in-person, face-to-face events to drive civic engagement. However, Evan understands some fundamental things about democratic involvement that could help the CRCDT to imagine new forms of digital engagement, or to rethink how people understand and engage with decision-making about technology that affects them.听听
During his workshop, Evan had a poignant observation about how technology is adopted or introduced in our communities. When decisions are made at the local level to greenlight the use of certain technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, facial recognition software or drone delivery services, the public is rarely involved. Most people tend to hear about new technologies only after they have been implemented in their communities.听
This brings up interesting questions for our group: How and where are these local decisions being made? How might we help make those decisions more transparent and/or educate community members on the technology? Are there ways we could help people advocate for the needs or concerns of their communities?听
It could also be interesting to look at how to measure civic health. If we looked at voter turnout as just one way of measuring democratic participation, what other metrics might help determine a community/state/nation鈥檚 overall civic engagement?听
Engagement Idea
Co-host an event with Warm Cookies at the 1UP in Denver or a similar arcade bar. People could play video games before participating in a discussion about emerging technologies in our communities and how/where local decisions are being made. CU researchers could be on hand to answer questions about the technologies.听
