local, city democracy changing in the digital era. by tomasz nadolny. #rockitwaw
TRANSCRIPT
How local democracy changed
over the last decade?
Let me introduce myslef
For longer than decade I work with
local goverment in Poland.
7 years ago starting cooperating
with our Mayor in city I live in,
Gdansk. First I started to teach
him how to use Social media in
communication internet to get in
contact with citizens.
3,5 years ago I closed one company,
and sell the shares in another and
started work for City Hall
My dream and plan:
Tear down the walls of City Hall
Over the next years, we (lots of people inside a city hall and from outside shareholders)
have done a lot of hard work. Social Media and other digital means of communication has
been implemented in the structure and operations of the City Hall and Mayors Office.
Theres is still a lot of work to be done, but we’ve made really big step in good direction.
What happened and what is happening?
More and more real conversations, requests, applications, discussions
took place in web space.
From 10 to more than 100 messages per day coming to the Mayor just by
Facebook. Most of tchem, he personally answer or at least looked at. All
discussions on various platforms like Twitter, Google +, Slideshare,
Youtube and Mayors blog - obviously has affected Mayor’s perception
of the residents real needs, problems and emotions.
Citizens eager to use Facebook’s Messenger
to stay in touch.
We’ve changed the way of comminication,
going in to the YouTube films, plain articles on a city website,
infographics to make them easier do share, to spread.
Make real conversation happens
We felt that we share something realy important with our citizens and we
started to build new ways of knowing the opinions and to make real
conversation happens.
Open leader
We have managed to transform our Mayor in Social Media harduser, very
active discussions participant, on social media platforms. He appreciated
and, whats more important, he liked this way of communication.
Paweł Adamowicz
– Mayor City of Gdansk
„Entrance on Twitter for half an hour, gave the feeling that you know what is happening in Gdansk, you feel the pulse of the city. You know what people are saying, what media channles and influensers.”
Citizens wanted to have more data,
and we wanted to talk with them
about the data.
We felt, that people expect from us to be more transparent. Citizens wanted to
have more data, and we wanted to talk with them about the data, so we opened
city data, we realeased online all the City Hall expenses.
Built spreadable stories.
We wanted to generate stories,
and we wanted to make them
more spreadable.
Civic budget
But we also wanted to engage and invented the web 2.0 tools to make it happens
Civic panel Civic participation
processes
Interactive city
budget of Gdańsk
We saw how many new skills we and citizens need to get to make it
profitable. We wanted to learn how to listen and how to find new ways of
cooperation, - so we introduce new ways of participation
Momentum for building stronger democracy
It was a time, that I strongly belived, that Its a momentum for building
stronger democracy.
For elected officials, including my previous boss, every time a citizen
makes a complaint or request, it just feels like one more burden on an
already busy schedule.
It’s understandandable why they might feel this way, but that doesn’t
make it right.
In fact, the more active and engaged citizen are, the closer we come to
the liberal democracy. Social media used properly by the citizens and city
govermnet, could boost democracy. People got the power in their hands
and thats the fact.
More active and engaged citizen are, the
closer we come to the liberal democracy
Gdansk as Freedom city, with free
data, free code, free people, create
a story about Solidarity movement
and solidarity with othersWe saw how the communication culture changed, and we wanted to create
story of Gdansk as Freedom city, with free data, free code, free people,
create a story about Solidarity movement and solidarity with others, and make
it sticky or rather shareable all over the Poland and over the world.
And I think we had huge achievments in it, without huge budgets, just making
good products and sharing the story and having fun the same time, working
with joy and commitment.
Black clouds on the horizon
However, year after year, after the first raptures, came sobering. Modern
internet dominated by a platform not only shows the exhaustion of
democracy which we knew so far, but it hacked and stole it.
Dark and light side
Each of us has become a potentially important actor and voices of
many had been heard thanks to social media.
But the phenomenon of fake news, trolling, hejt was never bigger
than today. There has never been a such a low level of public
discussion quality.
Democratic dabate vs marketing
The real problem: we do not exchange various arguments in the
course of the public debate, but thanks to marketing techniques,
everyone hears what he wants to hear and the message he
suggests. Algorithms of platforms make divisions between
competing camps deepen, and we stay in information bubbles,
becoming prisoners of our beliefs.
Inflation of democracy and public debate
Information flow changed so that what becomes "shareble",
"spreadable" is what entertains. Everything needs to be
entertainment even political, religious and branding messages.
I analyzed the statistics posts, in which my boss decorated
Christmas tree with his children and those which touched upon
matters of importance. Several thousand time more popular -
measured in likes, shares - currencies today's platforms - than
important topics, decisions.
Media lost thier vocation
Today great part of the energy and resources must go to monitoring
the Internet, constantly responding to crises and disinformation
appearing at any time of the week, day or night. It was media work
few years ago, but they Media lost thier vocation and the regulator
role in todays world.
There is no time for long and in-depth debate. What can not be
shown in the memes, it ceases to exist in consciousness. I'm not
saying that's good or bad, but I say like it is.
Who does rule the world, the city?
People or city government?
I’m afraid none of them…
On one hand, owners of platforms like Facebook, Twitter,
Snapchat likely to show us, how every next medium is powerful to
democratize communication. On the other side classical media
show the loss of citizen control, as the platforms for distributring
media are concentrated in few hands.
The more capital you have, the more you can.
Fortunately, in Poland, political parties are not as rich as in the
US, but even in our country financig their ventures with state
money is a trending topic.
Democratization or destabilization?
We still do not know where it exactly goes?
We don’t know what people collectively or individually decide to do
with those technologies as profesionals, as an audience and what
culture change will it produce in the end.
We still don’t know what will be the influence of new actors, like
companies, paid by huge money would influence what kind of
information we get and what king of behaving it would generate.
People have the tools and they know how to use it
People have the tools and they know how to use it if they want to
boost Susan Boyle’s story, but they don’t want to spread the story
without emotions.
So we adding emotions to political movements and election, but it
builts barykady i obozy.
What next? I do not have optimistic answer,
but I have a hope!
How to convince people that it is worthwhile to spend time and
resources on the important things and istototne. Is the only way is
to turn all the fun? I have no ready answer. I do not have an
optimistic answer. But i have a hope.
The most important currency is the time
Today the most important currency is the time. That's what you can
do to improve your city, your local democracy: Devote the time to
check facebook lies, stay familiar with information. Make the action.
Give the commitment.
The most important currency is the time
Today the most important currency is the time. That's what you can
do to improve your city, your local democracy: Devote the time to
check facebook lies, stay familiar with information. Make the action.
Give the commitment.
