Algorithmic Technology for Democracy

 “We are 21st-century citizens, doing our best to interact with 19th century-designed institutions that are based on an information technology of the 15th century”. If this is the state of modern democracy as the Argentinian activist Pia Mancini famously stated in an influential 2014 TED talk, how can we use digital technology to improve our democratic practices, and do so in a principled and evidence-based manner?

This is the core question of our workshop. We aim at laying the foundations for a long-term research effort and kickstart a small, strongly interdisciplinary community of committed researchers willing to contribute to the scientific foundations of effective tools for digital democracy.

Please see the Preliminary program under Program. 

Program elements:

• Each day starts with a plenary session. The core days (Tue, Wed, Thu) start with a plenary session delivered by practitioners reporting on their experiences and challenges with the deployment of digital democracy tools
• Workgroups form the bulk of the program. The aim of these groups is to contribute to the development of a research program (identifying challenges and possible methodologies) for the appropriate and effective use of algorithmic technology in democracy. These groups will be structured thematically in a bottom-up fashion, under the coordination of the organizers. Information about the workgroups will be circulated ahead of the workshop.
• Rump sessions: short 15/20 min academic talks fleshing out core ideas/statements/methods. The intention is to stimulate interest and start establishing a ‘common language’ across the different contributing disciplines.
• Invited talk (possibly via Zoom) from a ‘high-profile’ speaker
• Plenary reporting sessions: here workgroups report on their findings. The last plenary session (Friday morning) will mostly be dedicated to develop a strategy on how to capitalize on the ideas of the workshop and how to move further.