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Disclaimer: This post is not about dissing the civic tech community. On the contrary, it aims at starting a debate about what a real civic tech could mean for everyone and not just the few.
I was young, recklessâââafter all it was still 2016âââand I believed in what some called civic tech, now tech for good (circa 2018). Anyway, I totally dug those dream-sellers who had me believe in their promises to âhelp turn passion into political changeâ or to âtake action on behalf of the causes you care aboutââŠ
How naĂŻve of me! Despite their grand plans to help us as citizens get our voices heard while watching Netflix, civic tech companies havenât had a major breakthrough in years. They havenât brought more people to the voting booth, they havenât gotten major pieces of legislation to pass, they havenât prevented demagogues from reaching the White House, and the list goes on. Sure, Change.org and the likes are nice (I actually still love them) but what has been their impact in bringing⊠change? Right after the US presidential election, I was excited by the momentum in the Bay AreaâââI even pitched at the first Debug Politics hackathon and joined Code for Americaâs SF Brigadeâ but oh boy, what have those times of yore brought us?
Iâm not too sureâŠ
On the one hand, no truly impactful change and no sustainable business model for most civic tech companies. On the other, today those organizations have the ear of decision makers and the media.
As a recent example, Public (whose stated goal is to âhelp startups transform the public sectorâ) held the Gov Tech Summit in Paris where even fancy socks-wearer Justin Trudeau made an appearance. It was⊠interesting. Panelists kept arguing about the need to reach the youth, bring more legitimacy to the field, while bringing few solutions to the table.
As civic tech guruâââand quasi rock starâââPia Manciniâs Twitter header proudly states letâs âchange the toolâ, meaning: letâs remove all those old white dudes from Congress, replace the Congress by a more tech-oriented solution and give it another go. Why not ? After all, our democracies were born several centuries ago and surely are not adapted to our new way of life, our postmodern era, and our iPhone enthusiastic crowds methinks. However, one could not help but wonder: Cui bono? Who benefits from those civic techâs startups?
Certainly not the general public who still somehow turns out to vote but does not engage on civic tech platforms, and who doesnât know which tech platform to use among the legion that exists in order to voice their concerns and somehow hope they be heard. Probably not the government for which those startupsâ success could potentially mean its demise (because why go vote for someone when a tap is enough?).
To be fair, a tech update in governments and governance in general is long overdue (and even under way sometimes). The Obama administration is rightly credited with a number of gov tech initiatives that have had a real impact such as the USDS, Code for America, 18F, PIF, etc. However, those changes remain minor rather than structural: voting machines used across the US are still highly vulnerable, the Electoral College still exists (so long direct democracy), and open source is neither largely embraced by government nor the sine qua non condition to join the ranks of the civic tech community.
The main issue is twofold : a far from tech-savvy government and a tech community who sees common good as yet another market to conquer. But common good is not a market, its very essence demands everyoneâs say in the balance if democracy is to prevail. It is extremely worrying to see so many proprietary civic tech platforms competing and trying to capture our votes while at the same time showing no hint of legitimacy : Who elected them ? Why is this platform better than that one ? What is the guarantee that they wonât use their power to sway the odds ofâââeven minorâââelections? So many questions that remain to be answered before civic tech can claim to have reached its end.
Is Civic Tech Dead? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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