This document discusses the evolution of citizen technology and open government. It outlines how goals include promoting efficient, open, and accountable government as well as strengthening democratic institutions and citizen engagement. It describes how social media has democratized information sharing and allowed citizens to organize and influence power dynamics. Examples like the Arab Spring show how social media helped spread ideas. The document also discusses tools for political process monitoring, election oversight, and participatory budgeting. It argues that open government data becomes better through public input and that citizen technologies ensure a vibrant online and offline public sphere by allowing governments to communicate widely and reduce costs. Recommendations include structuring government documents with semantic markup, providing multiple access forms, using single-point portals and cloud

1. Citizen Technology & Open
Government
Jared Ford
ICT Programs
demworks.org | @jdeepford | jford@ndi.org

2. Democracy Technology
• Goals
Promote efficient, open & accountable government
Strengthen democratic institutions (Parties & CSOs)
Advance citizen engagement, open political space
• Evolution
Citizen Political Technology

3. Social Media
Democratization of content production and
dissemination.
Shareable, user-generated content (platforms)
Allows mobilizing populations, organizing events,
sharing information, and consolidating messaging.
Influences the dynamics of power and behavior of
citizens, elected officials, and government institutions

4. Arab Spring
• Social media played a
central role in shaping
political debates
• An increase in online
revolutionary
conversations often
preceded major events
on the ground.
• Social media helped
spread democratic ideas
across international
pitpi.org borders.

5. Political Process Monitoring
• Citizen oversight of democratic governance
• Election monitoring, participatory budgeting,
legislative tracking
• Tools which collect, analyze and share information

6. afghanistanelectiondata.org

7. istinomer.rs

8. votainteligente.cl

9. Implications for Open Government
• All countries must build democratic institutions that
accommodate the new role of citizen technologies.
• OGP (Criteria = Engagement, Access to Information)
• eGov to We-GOV

10. Open Government Data
• Open governmental data becomes better data via
input from the public.
• Citizen-oriented tools are crucial to ensuring a
vibrant online and offline public sphere
• Social media allows governments to reach vast
networks of people at once and defray costs.
(transparency-initiative.org)

11. Open governmental data becomes
better data via input from the public
recovery.gov

12. Ensure a vibrant online and offline public sphere
www.ferizbori.mk/poddrzete-ne

13. Reach vast networks of people at once and defray costs.
• Inec.org
inecnigeria.org

14. Recommendations
• Documents should be structured (data.gov/semantic)
• Multiple forms of access must be provided (mkssindia.org)
• Single-point portal (data.gov.uk)
• All data should be Cloud-based (socrata.com)

15. Documents
should be
structured
with
semantic
mark-up
data.gov/semantic

16. Multiple forms of access
mkssindia.org

17. Single-point portal
data.gov.uk

18. All data should be Cloud-based
socrata.com

19. How can we address citizen demand?

20. Jared Ford, ICT Programs
demworks.org | @jdeepford | jford@ndi.org