Presentation at 2013 Australian Labor Party International Political Advisors course, May 2.

1. Digital Tools for Democratic
Citizen Engagement
Gerard McCarthy
ALP Political Advisors Course,
Sydney, May 2nd 2013

2. - Online institute: courses on technology tools
and networks for social change.
- Courses include public health, mobile banking,
digital organising/campaigning and disaster
response.
- 1000 alumni in 70+ countries

3. Political Demand
• 1) Rise of rapid, ubiquitous
communications, creating
demand for political
accountability.

4. Political Supply
• 2) What it means for
democratic supply:
• inform voters;
• build strong party bases;
• draw citizens into the process;
• increase accountability.

6. No MAS FARC:
2008
• FARC and protests

7. No MAS FARC:
2008
• FARC and protests

8. No MAS FARC
• FARC and protests

9. No MAS FARC
• FARC and protests

10. Obama 2008
campaign
• Local community organising:
digital communications and
grassroots

11. Haiti 2010 Earthquake
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=e89Tqr75mMw (30)

12. Haiti 2010 Earthquake
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=e89Tqr75mMw (30)

13. Haiti 2010 Earthquake
• http://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=e89
Tqr75mMw (30)

14. • http://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=e89
Tqr75mMw (30)

15. What’s changed?

17. ‘Leapfrogging’

18. Source: Mobile and
Development
Intelligence
(http://www.mobiled
evelopmentintellige
nce.com/)
92%
pop.
(87.3m
sims)

19. Source: Mobile and
Development
Intelligence
(http://www.mobiled
evelopmentintellige
nce.com/)
107%
pop.
(260m
sims)

20. Source: Mobile and
Development
Intelligence
(http://www.mobiled
evelopmentintellige
nce.com/)
50%
pop.

21. Source: Mobile and
Development
Intelligence
(http://www.mobiled
evelopmentintellige
nce.com/)
117%
(41.
9m
sims
)

22. Source: Mobile and
Development
Intelligence
(http://www.mobiled
evelopmentintellige
nce.com/)
9% pop
2011…
2015?

23. Median voter age?

24. Median voter age?
• Timor L’Este: 22.8
• Philippines: 23.1
• Malaysia: 27.1
• Myanmar: 27.2
• Indonesia: 28.5

25. What do phones
mean?
- Strong relations (family, best
friends)
- Emerging relations (eg. people
you met at this conference)
- Weak relations (eg. tuktuk
drivers, shopkeepers)

26. The core tools
• Mobile Phones
• FrontlineSMS, GeoPoll, Episurveyor
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook, Babuser
• Maps
• Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap, ArcGIS

27. Person to Person
• Call
• SMS
• Social Media
• Facebook post/message
• Twitter

28. PDI-P to ‘citizenry’
• Call
• SMS
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook
• Old media: TV,
radio

29. Eg. PDI-P to ‘Citizenry’
• Event: rally
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook
• Media: TV, radio

30. Citizenry to
Party(Crowdsourci
ng)
• SMS
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook,
Bambuser

31. Citizen journalism

32. Crowdsourcing
“tapping the
talent of the
crowd” (Wired)
using mobiles
and social
media

34. Why crowdsource?
1) Info collection for analysis (one-way).
2) Citizen engagement and local
coordination (two-way).

35. SLU: Rally for Unity 28th April
2013
• SMS
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook
• TV, radio, online
videos

36. SLU: Rally for
Unity• SMS
• Social
Media
• Twitter,
Facebook
• TV,
radio,
online
videos

37. India: I Paid a Bribe

38. PNG: Stop the Stealing

39. PNG: Two-way
communications

41. Lesson:
Right tools, right context
• SMS
• Maps + Campaign
• Events
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook
• TV, radio, online videos

42. How canYOU use
digital tools to talk
to voters and build
more inclusive &
transparent
democracies?

43. Median voters: demand

44. Obama 2012: Blue State Digital
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=flozf64bkvM

45. Exercise!
• Women’s engagement: Women constitute 50% of
voters. How can you use digital tools and others to
understand the needs of women? What mixture of
online and offline local campaigning could you use?
What tools would be useful and who could you build
partnerships with?
• Economic reform: Your party is running for election
on a platform of economic reform. How would you
engage small business owners throughout the
country to determine what reforms will most benefit
them? How would you communicate with them?
• Election campaign: You are asked to run a two
week campaign in the run-up to a local election in
your area. How would you organise your teams,
prevent overlap and ensure a consistent message?
How would you decide what issues are important to
which voters?

46. - What type of technology or
communication tools are relevant to your
activity? Eg. SMS, campaign, radio
- Do you need partners with specific skills
eg. data analysis, graphic design?
- Will you need special resources from
national office?
Key questions

47. Lesson:
Right tools, right context
• SMS
• Maps + Campaign
• Events
• Social Media
• Twitter, Facebook
• TV, radio, online videos

48. 1. Listen! Citizen
engagement is disruptive
& challenging, so
embrace other voices!
2. You need to be nimble:
respond honestly and
quickly!
Lessons

49. 3. Offline involvement matters
4. You need to deliver (or people
will lose trust: Kenya
Lessons

50. Media Freedom
• Protect Old & New Media Freedom: Enshrine the right of
free speech, and strong freedom of information laws.
• Don’t censure the internet!:
• Costly: like check points on highway- slows
EVERYTHING
• Counter productive: voters won’t trust you and support if
they feel they might be arrested.

51. Open Government: Supply Side
• Sign up to Open Government Partnership:
share data you collect so that civil society groups
and parties can assess progress.
• You can’t demand accountability in
opposition, then forget in government!
• Build trust, and tap creativity of supporters
• Participate in online forums in a two-way fashion:
CrowdHallis a great example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgtqLgWAO0
c

52. Regulatory Reform
• There are lots of ways that
government can promote or
undermine the growth in mobile
access.
• International Telecommunications
Union has great advice on achieving
universal access:
http://www.ictregulationtoolkit.org/en/
Sections.html

53. Information and
Democracy
• 1) Digital
communication
tools
• 2) Big data
Source: Howard, 2013,
Freedom to Tinker,
bit.ly/ZB0uxr

54. Will you be the
leaders?

55. Closing comments and
questions
Gerard McCarthy
Director of Asia-Pacific Projects,
TechChange
Contact:
gerard@techchange.org