How to ensure emerging technologies remain fit-for-democracy? Learning from Decidim and Pol.is

Description:

Technology is not inherently a danger to our democracies. How technologies are designed, deployed, used and governed are just some factors that can make technology unfit or fit for democracy. As AI becomes ubiquitous, we should take a step back to reflect on the rules and choices that communities and governments should follow to protect the democratic quality of digital spaces like Decidim or Pol.is. 

During this workshop, participants will be invited to look back at both Decidim and Pol.is development in the past years, to understand which choices let to successes and failures. This mapping will be the basis to collectively define tangible learning to ensure emerging tech is democracy affirming. 

Participants will (to be defined):

1) hear from both Decidim/Pol.is communities about their journey to be democratically-affirming technologies (plenary)

2) define particularities of Decidim/Pol.is that led to this "success" (rules, development, etc.) (groups)

3) collectively define learnings that could be applied by governments and civic tech community in the development and deployment of AI and other emerging technologies (plenary)

This workshop is co-organized between OECD Innovative Citizen Participation Network and Liz Barry of the Computational Democracy Project, the organization that stewards Polis.

Language of the session: English or Spanish

Logistical needs: if possible some whiteboards and post-its

Maximum number of participants: TBD approx. 20-30

Number of people facilitating the workshop: 2-3