PDF14 Day Two
- "We can’t build a democracy for the people, by the people without all the people," said Noel Hidalgo, founder of the country's largest open government and civic tech meetup, BetaNYC.
- That includes government people. Matthew Burton, a long time civil servant, reinforced the view that government needs young talent. Burton challenged us with rethinking government — not as an alien entity that works against us but as a public product: "You can’t expect a government to work for you unless you yourself do the work of government."
- The UK government's executive director of digital Mike Bracken works on delivering world class digital services to British citizens. Why? Because "services underpin democracy," he said. When frustration builds over delayed phone lines and long lines, people lose trust in the government. Much like positive "microaffirmations" build up digital movements, as activist and artist An Xiao Mina pointed out yesterday, a cumulation of negative "microaffirmations" tears down trust. He pointed to President Barack Obama's disastrous HealthCare.gov launch as a case in point.
- Our own Andrew Rasiej observed, it's an example of what happens when you "build government up instead of tearing it down." Check out more in our post.
- While campaigns like "Reset the Net" show us how to save the Internet, how does the Internet Save? Continue>>>
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