<div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>Like my friend Todd whose email lists match mine to a large degree, I have an article in the  new journal on Digital Government: <br><br>Can Technology Support Democracy?<br><a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3352462">https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3352462</a><br><br>From: Digital Government: Research and Practice (DGOV). Volume 1, issue 1. January 2020<br><a href="https://dl.acm.org/toc/dgov/2020/1/1">https://dl.acm.org/toc/dgov/2020/1/1</a><br><br>One of my main points is that "The primary aim of technology in the service of democracy is not merely to make it easier or more convenient but to improve society's <i>civic intelligence</i>, its ability to address the problems it faces effectively and equitably."</div><div><br></div><div>I suggest that technology can play a role but doing so is not trivial.<br></div><div><br>As with the article that Todd and John Gastil wrote there I provide several recommendations. In addition to supporting their proposal my article recommends re-opening an Office of Technology Assessment to advise the U.S. congress and my idea of a <a href="https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament">World Citizen Parliament</a>, which is admittedly a utopian idea and somewhat of a thought experiment.<br><br>A couple of quotes from my article warns the potential reader where I'm coming from... <br><br>"Weaving technology and democracy together is risky, and technologists who begin any digital project with the conviction that technology can and will solve “problems” of democracy are likely to be disappointed. Technology can be a boon to democracy if it is informed technology. "<br><br>"The goal in writing this essay was to encourage people to help develop and cultivate a rich democratic sphere. Democracy has great potential that it rarely achieves. It is radical, critical, complex, and fragile. It takes different forms in different contexts. These forms are complex and the solutionism promoted by the computer industry and others is not appropriate in the case of democracies."<br><br><div>Hopefully this is of interest. Please feel free to get back to me on this!</div><div><br></div>Thanks!<br><br></div><div>— Doug</div><div><br></div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(80,0,80);border-collapse:separate"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div><div style="font-size:12px">Douglas Schuler</div><div style="font-size:12px"><a href="mailto:douglas@publicsphereproject.org" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">douglas@publicsphereproject.org</a></div><div style="font-size:12px">Twitter: @doug_schuler</div><div style="font-size:12px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12px">------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div></div></span>Public Sphere Project<span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div><div style="font-size:12px">     <a href="http://www.publicsphereproject.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://www.publicsphereproject.org/</a></div></div></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;font-size:12px"><br></span><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good</div><div>     <font color="#4787ff"><u><span> <a href="http://lists.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://lists.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci</a></span><span>4cg-announce</span></u></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">    </div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Creating the World Citizen Parliament</div>     <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-collapse:separate"><a href="http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament</a><div>     </div></span>Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (project) <div>     <a href="http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv</a></div><div><br></div>Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (book)         <div> <a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601</a></div></span></div></div></div></div></div>