Democracy Technologies

Wir freuen uns, die Keynote-Speaker für die” Safe Democracy Convention" am 13. Februar im Wiener Rathaus vorzustellen! 
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Freuen Sie sich auf inspirierende Vorträge von führenden Expert:innen wie Paul Nemitz und Simona Levi, die mit ihrer Expertise und Vision unsere Diskussionen bereichern werden.

🌍 Nehmen Sie an der Safe Democracy Convention 2025 am 13. Februar im Wiener Rathaus teil!
Entscheidungsträger und Führungspersönlichkeiten aus Österreich und anderen Ländern werden erkunden, wie Technologie die Bürgerbeteiligung, Datensicherheit & Transparenz stärken kann, um Demokratien zu fördern.

What does #participation really look like in practice?

GoVocal's Jelena Gregorius explains their 360-degree participation—across methods, mediums, and topics—and how you can accomplish it in your project.

Get the briefing: briefing.innovationinpolitics.eu/cours…

Grassroots Politics and Participatory Budgeting in Poland Milena Kowalska, Poland’s youngest municipal councillor, tells us about her experiences with participatory budgeting.

In participatory budgeting, institutional initiatives often overshadow those of individuals.

To create a level playing field, Milena Kowalska, Poland's youngest councillor, advocates for implementing measures that ensure fair representation and opportunity for all participants.

A Map of Government: Democracy Guide A team in Germany created "Democracy Guide," a map that allows residents to easily locate their local representatives for different issues.

Do you know who is responsible for city planning in your area?

Demokratie-Wegweiser is a map that shows German residents which politicians they can approach on different issues in their area. We spoke with Franziska Hollstein about the importance of transparency for local democracy.

"Data Should Be Treated as a Communal Resource" ProjectTogether's Re:Form programme aims to build a network of innovators from administrations at all federal levels around Germany.

“Data should be treated as a communal resource”

ProjectTogether's Re:Form is creating a network of innovators at all levels of government across 🇩🇪. Recently, they’ve been exploring how municipalities of various sizes can use data, both public and private. We spoke to Robert Peter about his work.

Citizenlab Becomes Go Vocal Citizenlab is changing its name to Go Vocal. The participation platform has also announced significant investment in AI-based solutions.

Renamed to Go Vocal because "we felt we had outgrown it" says CEO Wietse Van Ransbeeck. We asked him about the platform's use of AI as a moderator for deliberative, co-creative decision-making and supporting process design.

Defending Democracy Against 'Team Jorge' and Cyber Saboteurs Democracy’s destruction has become a lucrative business, highlighting the fact that its defence requires ‘eternal vigilance’. We spoke to Patrick Penninckx, Head of Department for Information Society ...

Through hacking, disinformation, and micro-targeting, operations like 'Team Jorge' manipulate elections and pose a real threat to democracy. Experts Patrick Penninckx and Peter Wolf stress the need for strict regulations, vigilance, and innovation to safeguard electoral integrity. From our archive:

What is Open Data, and Why Does it Matter? A growing number of countries, cities, and regions now have dedicated open data portals. What are they, and how do they benefit democracy?

Open data portals contain a huge variety of information, from cycle lane maps to government spending. They offer practical information, while also allowing journalists, researchers, and the public to monitor governments. Find out more about how they work in our guide:

Fitting a Participation Tool to a New Place Urban planning tools need to be adapted to the needs of the local community. That's the idea behind U_CODE's pilot project in Nakuru, Kenya.

"The idea was to use icons that everyone, regardless of literacy levels, would be able to recognise” explains Titus Kaloki. We spoke to him and Arjama Mukherjee about U_CODE, the software fostering citizen-urban planner collaboration.

How Belgium is Giving Citizens a Say on AI The Belgian Presidency of the European Council has convened a citizens' assembly to help shape a European vision on AI.

“Democracy should be based on the principle that nothing is too complex for citizens to have a say on”

Belgium's citizens' assembly on AI is the first EU consultation of its kind, engaging the public in shaping European AI policy.

Safe Participation in Kyiv: Condominium E-Voting The City of Kyiv uses its Condominium e-Voting app to allow residents living overseas to stay involved in their community during the war.

Condominium E-Voting began as a digital alternative for apartment meetings in Kyiv. Now, it keeps Kyivans connected to city life, whether displaced or at home, while also serving as a threat warning system. Kateryna Mohylnytska shares how it engages 83%+ of the population.

AI in Europe: The Role of Public Spending Public procurement is one of the most effective ways of fostering innovation in AI while also upholding Europe's core values.

Op-Ed | The EU has taken big steps toward regulating AI – but regulation alone is not enough. Karen Boers argues that public procurement could be key to boosting innovation while also maintaining European values.

"A Must for Every City": Open Data in Košice Košice 2.0 was launched to harness the potential of open data to transform services in urban areas. An interview with Michal Hladký.

We spoke to Michal Hladký about how Košice 2.0 is transforming city services with data-driven approaches. Overcoming challenges like data quality and GDPR, the project enhanced transparency and fostered citizen engagement.

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“Civic Tech From the Global South Is Less Naive About the Benevolence of Governments” Raphael Pouyé, democracy support and participatory governance expert, points out we can learn a lot from Civic Tech in Africa.

Raphaël Pouyé shares insights on African civic tech: entrepreneurial, anti-corruption, & community-driven. He highlights the importance of knowledge exchange and citizen scrutiny.

Read more in this piece from our archive:

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The Lost Contributions to France's Great Debate The

During the yellow vest movement, France promised to digitise the grievances that protesters shared in notebooks placed in town halls. Five years later, this remains undelivered. These "lists of grievances" highlight vital lessons on democratic innovation.

Democratic Lottery - A Guide to Sortition According to some experts, ‘Sortition’ could eventually replace elected politicians altogether. In reality, it is already in use alongside elections – quietly revolutionising the way political decisio...

Sortition is the process of randomly selecting citizens to discuss key issues. Despite challenges such as representation and transparency, it offers promise for more diverse voices in decision-making, enhancing democracy beyond elections. Learn more from this piece from our archive:

Change It! Youth Participation in the Czech Republic Change It! is Říčany's inaugural youth participatory budgeting project, involving youths aged 12 to 25 in city decision-making.

Change It! is Říčany's youth participatory budgeting initiative, engaging 12 to 25-year-olds in decision-making, fostering interest in shaping the city's future. Adéla Ambrožová discusses being a finalist in the Innovation in Politics Awards.

Loopholes in European AI Regulation In an open letter, Algorithm Watch and other groups have urged policymakers to avoid loopholes in the Council of Europe's Convention on AI.

"Is it really possible, with this highly technical approach, to ensure that AI is not going to violate our most basic rights?"

Angela Müller of AlgorithmWatch talks to us about loopholes in the Council of Europe's AI Convention & the EU's AI Act.

Pluralism: A Platform for Arguing Respectfully Pluralism provides a model for a new kind of online interaction which rewards good-faith dialogue instead of provocation and hate.

We spoke to Iwan Ittermann, a Bertelsmann Stiftung Fellow, about his project Pluralism, which promotes respectful dialogue on social media to tackle to the toxicity of online interactions.

AI and the Future of Participation At DecidimFest 2023, we talked to Xabier E. Barandiaran, philosopher and founding Decidim member, about AI and the future of participation.

From our archive: Xabier E. Barandiaran delves into 'Artificial Collective Intelligence' and AI's impact on democratizing platforms such as #Decidim. Embracing open-source AI, he envisions inclusive governance through technology.

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9 Partners Governments Can Team up With to Counter Disinformation Governments can partner with or support nine types of organisations and institutions in countering disinformation.

As more people turn to social media for news, the potential harm of disinformation on democracies is rising. Here are nine ways governments can team up with others to counter disinformation:

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Radical Data: Art, Activism, & Technology Rayén Jara Mitrovich is a co-founder of Radical Data, a collective that uses data and builds tools for resistance and alternative futures.

From our archive: Radical Data is a small collective on a mission “to redefine technology as a tool for communities, subverting its oppressive uses by big tech.” Co-founder Rayén Jara Mitrovich discusses AI biases, Chile's constitution, and blending art, activism, and technology.

“Citizens’ Assemblies Shouldn’t Happen in a Vacuum" Dominik Hierlemann of the Bertelsmann Stiftung discusses the design of Germany's new citizens' assembly on disinformation.

To help tackle disinformation, Bertelsmann Stiftung and the German Ministry of the Interior are leading a citizens' assembly that merges online and off-line participation. We caught up with Dominik Hierlemann from Bertelsmann Stiftung to talk about the project.

How Governments Can Fight Disinformation with High-quality Communication It is easier for governments to fight disinformation by preventing a falsehood from taking hold in the first place.

High-quality government communications can play an important role in tackling disinformation. Examples from the COVID-19 pandemic show how governments can tackle disinformation.

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How E-Voting Can Boost Political Responsiveness The case of Brazil demonstrates how e-voting can actually improve citizens' well-being through higher and more equal political participation.

In Brazil, e-voting reshaped the political landscape, raising participation and welfare. More valid votes from less privileged parts of society drove up healthcare spending, showing the power of tech in democracy. Read more in this piece from our archive: democracy-technologies.org/voting/how-e...

Participative processes often start out by promising a quick path to political change, but frustration arises when results lag. Gianluca Sgueo advocates for a nuanced storytelling approach that embraces political complexity.

Read the full interview from our archives here: bit.ly/3wjdHmk

Finding the Right Voting Method for Your Participatory Budget How to choose a participatory budget voting method? We present some of the options and their advantages and disadvantages.

Participatory budgeting voting methods shape democratic decision-making, ensure fairness, transparency, and community engagement in resource allocation. Here's a guide from our archives to help you choose the best one for your process.

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Only Research Transparency Can Defeat Disinformation To tackle disinformation, journalists need to be transparent about their working process, argues Austin Mackell, CEO of Stone Transparency.

Op-ed | As disinformation flourishes online, how do we know who to trust? Lists of “trusted sources” are inherently elitist, argues Austin Mackell of Stone Transparency. Instead, journalists need an easy way to share their research process with readers.

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