Jump to content

User:Lubnasebastian/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Civic Technology Companies are companies that promote platforms, products, and services that facilitate civic engagement.[1] Nowadays, civic technology communities are focusing on "building solutions that are needs-responsive and community-driven",[2] and making immense progress in the civic tech space.[3]

Definition

[edit]

Civic technology encompasses any type of technology that enables greater participation in government affairs, or "assists government in delivering citizen services and strengthening ties with the public".[4] The phrase can essentially be used to describe any company that is concerned with improving the quality, access, and efficiency of government services within the political system through technological means.[5]

Civic Technology in the United States

[edit]

Civic hacking companies like Code For America work towards addressing the gap between the government and citizens, pledging to create "government services that are simple, effective, and easy to use, for everyone".[6] Similarly, websites like OpenGov focus on streamlining the government budgeting process and making political data easily accessible and analyzable.[7] Investment in civic tech has been on the rise, with the U.S. government spending $6.4 billion on the industry in 2015. With new entrepreneurs joining the industry and political offices, like ex-Googler Megan Smith becoming the country’s chief technology officer in 2014 and former Twitter and Medium exec DJ Patil becoming the country’s first Chief Data Scientist of the Office of Science and Technology Policy,[8] money is expected to flow into civic technology for the years to come.

Civic Technology in France

[edit]

Many different types of companies around the world classify as civic technology companies. In France, for example, many civic tech platforms, most notably LaPrimaire.org, emerged after citizens expressed "disgust" at the word 'politics' itself.[9] La Primaire is ambitiously aiming to organize an open primary election, select a suitable Presidential candidate, and allow the candidate to run in the 2017 elections.[10] Although the candidate would then need to be backed by a major political party and have 500 political officials sign off to endorse him/her, 78% of the French electorate has reported feeling comfortable voting for an independent candidate [11]

Civic Technology in the United Kingdom

[edit]

Many companies in the UK are turning towards improving civic engagement and technology, too. mySociety, an e-democracy project of the UK Citizens Online Democracy charity, works to make online democracy tools for UK citizens.[12] With their open source tools, mySociety's code can be deployed to many other platforms and countries across the world. mySociety has many different tools, like parliamentary monitering ones, that work in many countries for different types of governance. When such tools are integrated into government systems, citizens can not only understand the inner workings of their now transparent government, but also have the means to "exert influence over the people in power".[13]

Jordan Greenhall

[edit]

Jordan Greenhall is an American angel investor and entrepreneur working in the internet and digital media sector.[14] As an advocate for “efficient, collaborative, open” information models, Greenhall was the Vice President of MP3.com and co-founded digital media company DivX Inc in 2000, serving as the giant's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman through 2007.[15] Currently, Greenhall serves as a senior member of the Neurohacker Collective, having co-founded the company in 2015.[16]

Education

[edit]

Greenhall earned his Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Texas A&M University in 1994, and graduated summa cum laude.[17] He went on to Harvard Law School, where he played on the university's ice hockey team.[18]

Career

[edit]

After working as a lawyer for a year, Greenhall served as one of the first employees of MP3.com, eventually becoming the company's Senior Vice President of Strategy, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the website's business and content development model [19].[20] He served on the Board of Trustees for the Santa Fe Institute and is currently involved with numerous other institutions.[21] Greenhall served as a participant with The Aspen Institute,[22] and is the "co-founder, former CEO, and current chairman of the Board of DivX Inc., the San Diego company behind the digital data compression application DivX that enabled reasonable quality video transmission over the Internet".[23]

Investments

[edit]

Greenhall served as an angel investor for many companies, including venture capital fund Lowercase Capital,[24] financial information company BrightScope,[25] and app distribution platform SweetLabs.[26]

Innovative Politicians

[edit]

Innovative Politicians are US candidates for public office and/or current incumbents who have embraced social media and innovative platforms during the election season of while in office.

Howard Dean

[edit]

Politician Howard Dean's famous use of Meetup.com for his upstart presidential campaign in 2002 made it easy for people "with a common interest to find each other and arrange to meet, face to face".[27] Howard Dean listened to technology and the people using it, and altered speeches and stances after getting feedback from his supporters and critics [28] Many of Howard Dean's followers used Meetup.com, with the number of people coming out to Dean's Meetups in 600 location across the country ultimately reaching about 143,000. The website was revolutionary, as engagement in face-to-face local groups "dramatically affected how involved volunteers got with the campaign. The more Meetups people attended, the higher their average donation to the campaign".[29] Dean's campaign's pickup of the emerging platform encouraged future candidates to look for unconventional methods of voter tracking and interaction, especially since Meetup.com propelled Dean to a viable spot in the presidential race.[30]

David Cole

[edit]

28-year-old software developer David Cole ran for Congress in 2016 to represent his home district in New Jersey. He announced his campaign in a Medium post reading, “I’m a coder running for Congress,” and aimed to bring a startup’s "sensibility, systems—and, naïveté—to the campaign".[31] Cole's experience in the coding world was instrumental in his integration of software development site Github to his political platform.[32] Cole employed Github in the hopes that constituents would collaborate on political policies, commenting on and editing his stance on issues straight on the website like they would on software.[33] Although Cole lost the election, his innovative use of Github can be utilized in campaigns to come.

Barack Obama

[edit]

President Barack Obama has revolutionized how current politicians use social media, with the White House expanding the President and First Lady's use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. While "critics [may] worry that governance by social media will cheapen the power of the presidency by substituting hashtag activism for serious policymaking," Obama has successfully "leveraged the opportunities of the digital age to maximum political advantage".[34] The Administration has capitalized on micro-targetting, the identification of the desired audience and aiming of messages to the target directly, as it is much more engaging for audiences to have an online experience tailored just for smaller audiences.[35]

Donald Trump

[edit]

President-elect Donald Trump utilized Twitter frequently both during and after the 2016 presidential election, and said himself that social media helped him win the primary and general elections even though his opponents spent "much more money than [he] spent".[36] With social media acting as free media and publicity, Trump was able to harness Twitter as a platform to respond quickly to his opponents and tweet about his stance on various issues. While Slate explains that Trump succeeded because he retained his "vulgar vigor and translated it into the political arena",[37] the Washington Post has called his Twitter account "prolific, populist, and self-obsessed".[38]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Rowley, Jason. "Civic Tech Faces Uphill Battle In Work To Build A Better Government And Society". MatterMark. MatterMark. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  2. ^ mheadd. "Civic Tech: Days of Future Past". Civic.io. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  3. ^ Civic Ninjas. "Twitter List of Companies in Knight Foundation's Report on Civic Tech". Civic Ninjas. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  4. ^ Wood, Colin. "What is Civic Tech?". Gov Tech. eRepublic. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  5. ^ mheadd. "Civic Tech: Days of Future Past". Civic.io. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  6. ^ www.codeforamerica.org https://www.codeforamerica.org/about-us. Retrieved 2016-11-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ www.govtech.com http://www.govtech.com/100. Retrieved 2016-11-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ Donohue, Stacy. "Civic Tech Is Ready For Investment". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  9. ^ Guerrini, Federico. "Civic Tech Platform La Primaire Wants To Help French Voters Bypass Traditional Parties". Forbes. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  10. ^ Guerrini, Federico. "Civic Tech Platform La Primaire Wants To Help French Voters Bypass Traditional Parties". Forbes. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  11. ^ Cann, Yves-Marie. "Forte envie d'autres têtes : 78% des Français prêts à voter pour un candidat ni issu ni soutenu par un parti et 66% pour un candidat en dissidence avec le sien Read more at http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/forte-envie-autres-tetes-78-francais-prets-voter-pour-candidat-ni-issu-ni-soutenu-parti-et-66-pour-candidat-en-dissidence-avec-2597077.html#890CW6EqAZuadMjY.99". Atlantico.fr. Retrieved 17 December 2016. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  12. ^ mySociety. "Hello, we're mySociety". mySociety. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  13. ^ mySociety. "Democracy". mySociety. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  14. ^ Reinvent. "Jordan Greenhall". Reinvent. Reinvent.
  15. ^ Reinvent. "Jordan Greenhall". Reinvent. Reinvent.
  16. ^ "Jordan Greenhall". Neurohacker. NEUROHACKER COLLECTIVE, LLC. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  17. ^ Greenhall, Jordan. "Jordan Greenhall". Linkedin. Linkedin Corporation. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  18. ^ Greenhall, Jordan. "Jordan Greenhall". Linkedin. Linkedin Corporation. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  19. ^ Reinvent. "Jordan Greenhall". Reinvent. Reinvent.
  20. ^ "Jordan Greenhall". Crunchbase. Crunchbase Inc. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  21. ^ "Jordan Greenhall". Crunchbase. Crunchbase Inc. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  22. ^ "Who are the New Revolutionaries?". Aspen Ideas. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  23. ^ "Jordan Greenhall". Crunchbase. Crunchbase Inc. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  24. ^ Primark, Dan. "Exclusive: Is this the best-performing VC fund ever?". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  25. ^ "BrightScope". Angel.co. AngelList. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  26. ^ "SweetLabs". Angel.co. AngelList. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  27. ^ Sifry, Micah. "From Howard Dean to the tea party: The power of Meetup.com". CNN. Cable News Network. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  28. ^ Wolf, Gary. "How the Internet Invented Howard Dean". Wired. Wired. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  29. ^ Sifry, Micah. "From Howard Dean to the tea party: The power of Meetup.com". CNN. Cable News Network. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  30. ^ Sifry, Micah. "From Howard Dean to the tea party: The power of Meetup.com". CNN. Cable News Network. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  31. ^ Meyer, Robinson. "Hacking the Political Platform: Why One Candidate Is Using Github". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  32. ^ Finley, Clint. "Hacker Opens His Congressional Platform for Editing on GitHub". Wired. Wired. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  33. ^ Finley, Clint. "Hacker Opens His Congressional Platform for Editing on GitHub". Wired. Wired. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  34. ^ Eilperin, Juliet. "Here's how the first president of the social media age has chosen to connect with Americans". The Washington Post. WP Company LLC. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  35. ^ Eilperin, Juliet. "Here's how the first president of the social media age has chosen to connect with Americans". The Washington Post. WP Company LLC. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  36. ^ Morin, Rebecca. "Trump says social media was key to victory". Poltico. Politico LLC. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  37. ^ Hess, Amanda. "How Trump Wins Twitter". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  38. ^ Phillips, Amber. "The surprising genius of Donald Trump's Twitter account". The Washington Post. WP Company LLC. Retrieved 17 December 2016.