The Three Levers of Civic Engagement

Anthea Watson Strong at the Personal Democracy Forum in 2014. Full text of speech and slides at antheawatsonstrong.com/writing

Transcript

1. The Three Levers of Civic Engagement full speech and slides at antheawatsonwtrong.com/writing
2. People Still Need to Make Dinner
3. The Internet = Magic
4. As creators of campaigns and civic engagement tools, we need to be much more honest with ourselves, and each other, about the motivations and interests of “real people.” Just to be clear, for the purposes of civic action, none of you are real people.
5. Milwaukee Campaign Office circa 2006
6. When designing tools to help people take civic action online, I never forget how hard it was for my friends in Milwaukee to find time to work on community issues.
7. William Riker Peter Ordeshook A Theory of the Calculus of Voting
8. PB + D > C
9. PB + D > C P = Probability that the user will impact the outcome of a civic decision
10. PB + D > C P = Probability that the user will impact the outcome of a civic decision B = Benefit of a changed outcome to the user
11. PB + D > C P = Probability that the user will impact the outcome of a civic decision B = Benefit of a changed outcome to the user D = Sense of civic duty the user gets from an action
12. PB + D > C P = Probability that the user will impact the outcome of a civic decision B = Benefit of a changed outcome to the user D = Sense of civic duty the user gets from an action C = Cost of civic action
13. 0B + D > C In the 2012 general election, 129 million people completed a ballot. The likelihood that your vote was going to decide the outcome of the election was so close to zero, it makes no difference. Essentially P = 0.
14. 0B + D > C People voted in 2012 because their D, or their sense of civic duty, outweighed the C, or the cost of finding a polling place, making sure they had the right ID and taking time to go and vote.
15. Photo by alcantar214 on Flickr
16. The Internet = Magic Photo by Juan Antonio Flores Segal
17. Photo by James Gordon Parliamentary election, January 2005, Nasiriyah, Iraq
18. Users have acted, and will continue to act, in a mostly rational way online, just as they did offline.
19. COST DUTY PROBABILITY The Three Levers of Civic Engagement
20. Lower the Cost
22. Photo source info here
23. Increase the Duty
24. Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America
25. Increase the Probability
26. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
27. Photo by Christopher Dilts for Obama for America
28. Funders: Are we funding products for the way we wish people would act, or how they will actually behave?
29. Technologists: We need to spend more time thinking about the ways we can reduce the cost of civic action and increase the probability that an action will impact the outcome of a civic decision.
30. Academics: We need research that is focused on the right ways to move the three levers of civic engagement.
31. If we want people to use the next generation of civic tools, we need to understand the motivations of real world people and how they can influence the civic space.
32. Anthea Watson Strong Civic Innovation, Google Social Impact @ antheaws