This workshop will explore just how we can harness the power of technology to create democratic spaces where people can actively listen to one another, find common ground to address social challenges, and rebuild their trust in institutions. We will focus on citizen assemblies as emerging democratic spaces designed to not only give people an opportunity to come together, deliberate, and create something with meaning, but also confront the complexities of politics and the way government makes its policies.
We will explore how civic assemblies work, investigate the benefits of its institutionalization, and take a look at what kind of technical infrastructure would be required in order to better engage the public.
During this highly interactive workshop, we will introduce technical tools designed to build listening skills, create dialogue, and make better decisions together.
Registration
Please note: Maximum number of participants: 25
Language: English
Registration required.
Participation only with FESTIVALPASS+, FESTIVALPASS or day ticket.
Credits
Credits: Presented in collaboration with the Johannes Kepler University and the Circus of Knowledge.
Claudia Chwalisz
Claudia Chwalisz is the Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, an international non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute with a mission to shift political and legislative power to people through empowered Citizens’ Assemblies. She works to build new democratic institutions that give people agency and dignity through participation, that distribute political power equally through selection by lot (sortition), and that channel collective intelligence and enable people to find common ground through deliberation.
Previously, Claudia served as the Innovative Citizen Participation Lead at the OECD, where she established and analysed an evidence base of around 600 examples of deliberative assemblies around the world, co-authored the “Catching the Deliberative Wave” report, and set standards for implementation and institutionalization. She was involved in designing the world’s first permanent deliberative bodies made up of people drawn by a lottery in Ostbelgien, Paris, and Brussels. Claudia is an Obama Leader Europe 2023.
Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou
As the Head of Translational Research at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou leads sociotechnical research at the intersection of dialogue, technology, and design. By bringing deep expertise in participatory methods, qualitative analysis, and design research, she focuses on the design, prototyping, and advancement of social dialogue technologies and oversees the transfer of research methods, tools, and systems to practice and deployment.
Deb Roy
Director, MIT Center for Constructive Communication
CEO & Co-founder, Cortico
Deb Roy is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT where he directs the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, and co-founder and CEO of Cortico, a social technology non profit that develops and operates a conversation platform designed to surface underheard voices both within communities and across divides. His research on applied machine learning, human-machine system design, and understanding large-scale social media ecosystems is directed toward developing safe and trusted spaces for meaningful, nonpolarizing human connection and civic impact.
