Member Stories 's Civic Tech Community

“There is a large prison near my town—the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility—which is a big employer in the community. To this day, it still carries out the Death Penalty. When I was nine years old, I heard on the news that someone was being put to death that very day. I remember begging my mother to take me to protest it. Looking back, that was one of my first sparks for advocacy and civic engagement.”

The SIPA Dean’s Public Policy Challenge is an annual competition of the School of International and Public Affairs created to inspire students to develop innovative uses of digital technology and data to address global policy problems.

“I had a civic-minded upbringing. My parents always talked about politics around the dinner table, and things that could make the world a better place. Even at a young age, I had an empathetic mind; that’s something my parents fostered in me.” 

“I have a very strong belief that tech is a means, not an end. What do I mean by that? I don’t believe most people can make relationships through that world, but they can support relationships very effectively that begun outside of it.”

“Some clients ask me, “What if, at the end of data analysis, we find that our program doesn’t work as well as we thought it did?” “I tell them, well, at least you know then, and you can do something productive with that information.

“Stay open — to new ideas, friendships, opportunities, and conversations.”

“We need to be more careful about how we use technology and what we use it for.”

“I have had the best of both worlds – I can do the American side, my Tibetan self. But since most of my upbringing took place in developing countries, I tend to think about what happens to the weakest stakeholders.”

“You put everything into what you’re doing – months of rehearsing, practicing scales, memorize lines. When you’re working on a play you put everything into it – then you rest, and you cry. And then you start a new project. That became the pattern of my life. And I love the community – the social aspect of it.”

“How do we bridge the gap between the research and how we talk about it?”

“Instead of focusing on all the suburbs, what about the ur-ban pocket of digital natives who are hungry & would love to work? Instead of looking for “A” students, we focus on the C+/B-’s, gems who can be engaged & given direction.”

“Stay focused on bringing sunlight and a great product to the civic tech community.”

“While my father worked for the Catholic League for Poland, managing the American postwar relief, buying people out of camps, we discovered that he was also a spy! He was given two death sentences under Stalin, narrowly escaping.”

“In Helsinki a politician asked me, ‘Wait. You keep mentioning the Cloud. What is the Cloud?’ These are people who vote for extremely complex legal frameworks! European Parliament has a training schedule for members of Parliament – digital tools – but that’s Level Zero. EdTech is booming; we need some sort of EdTech for the public sector.”

“From social movements I learned how my role as a journalist was not only about “giving voice,” but actually uplifting and empowering communities through my understanding of tech and storytelling.”

“We deserve to know the price before and after – whether it’s that of a banana or a t-shirt.”

“There is a disconnect for my generation. We possess strong political opinions, but this doesn’t translate to voting. How do we bridge the gap between intention and action?”

“As I worked with students, I learned that I have a passion to plant a seed and watch it grow. It impacted me seeing how much I enjoy positivity in others. I decided to double major with math and computer science, and keep it going.”

“While I love that the progressive movement is extremely data-driven, it does not focus on its most reliable coalition – voters of color and youth voters. We need to put pressure on the movement to come up with tangible benchmarks and protocols when it comes to POC outreach.”

“I want to build technology that has heart – tech that’s inclusive, has empathy, and can serve as a canvas or catalyst for others to build movements or pursue what inspires them.”

“I learned that as you’re building tech to benefit underserved and generally vulnerable populations that you have to be extremely ethical and conscious of how that software and tech, including the data its collecting, factor into whether those people are being helped or exploited.”

“The ultimate vision — the high level dream — is that every middle and high school student has access to this platform, can explore it, and have ownership over their own civic identity.”

“I returned to the U.S. at a time when our failure to acknowledge and address various forms of marginalization and violence against PoC and LGBTQ people were the top news stories. This remains the case. Now more than ever, I’ve committed myself to exploring the intersection of culture, civic engagement and corporate governance and strategy.”

“The more I’ve experienced the amazing beauty of nature, the more I want to do this work. From Angel Falls in Venezuela, to Orangutans in Borneo, I’ve seen what we can lose. Everyone should be able to experience this.”

“We wanted to build an organization where you’re not competing, but pulling together, maintain a sense of freedom that comes with the pirate life. We have people all over the place — in Omaha, Montana, Maine — and are able to collaborate effectively. Creative production is a mix of individual contribution and collaboration.”

“Anyone trying to use story to advocate, persuade, or disrupt, is engaged in a collaborative act. If you are not, you are not engaged in an authentic story and are possibly doing something worse — telling the story about someone from a community you don’t understand, in a way that serves your purpose, and just might even endanger them.”

“I had this vision, ‘When you’re young you do things, you volunteer. It’s only when you’re done with your career, when you’ve achieved something, that you then step into government.’ And I realized that was totally wrong.”

“I am always down to analyze an idea or a system. I love connecting with others and making them feel welcome. I throw a kickass dinner party.”

“Global Americans conducts research and analysis on Latin American affairs — democracy, human rights, social inclusion, and most importantly, foreign policy and its relationship between the U.S. and the western hemisphere. We’re looking at “The Wall,” NAFTA renegotiations, the rising conflict in Nicaragua, the escalating crisis in Venezuela…”

“I don’t want to see Woke Work thought of as “the black events for POC” at Civic Hall. I don’t want to increase segregation; I want it to be integrated. I want members to attend and learn from each other and be part of the conversation. Without that, we’ll never grow.”

“The very first time I walked into a tech event in New York, I was petrified. I thought, ‘I don’t fit here. I don’t belong here. I’m gonna quit.’ I went to an event just last week — I won’t say which one. It was so poorly curated and homogeneous that all of those feelings rushed back. Here I am six years later and I’m still, ‘What am I doing here?’ How am I helping as many people who are like me not feel like that? That’s what I feel our mission is.”

“It’s my hope that the skills I’ve honed doing for-profit research have great things to contribute to civic engagement and helping our leaders understand what we need from them. Market research was about helping companies understand what the needs are of our customers. So, what is civic engagement, what is civic research? Helping our public officials understand what the needs are of our citizens.”

“Cambridge Analytica is what pulled me in full force [to civics]. I had to learn about everything – a deep dive into Constitutional history, leading up to how we got here. The ultimate test of freedom of speech; our values as a country, which we’ve taken them for granted. In the process I was forced to reconsider my belief that all speech is a net positive.”

“Our interest began with the contradiction of the laws. At the time, I didn’t even know the social justice component. I was fascinated that, at the time, California was threatening to pass legalization and what confusion that would bring.”

“We have to remember we’re all part of a system. We’re all nodes. We each affect each other one way or another. We forget that. It’s why our healthcare system is seeing a surge in interest in wellness. We need to start seeing ourselves as part of a collective and how… my bounty can be your gain as well.”

“Growing up in a single-parent, impoverished household as a gay youth, I experienced a lot of adversity and dance really helped me get energy out. It was just ME and the dance floor; nothing else was going on — an escape for that energy.”

“We have about 20,000 or so volunteers involved/interested in the movement, but the challenge with any volunteer org is having enough work for those who raise their hands.”

“With art, I viewed it as a gift from one person to another in a passive way. So I pursued art to contribute to that ecosystem.”

“This year we flipped the legislatures of New Mexico and Nevada, and would have picked up Virginia but for a coin toss.”

“Civic Hall is a workspace, but it’s also a community, and it can be so much more. When I come here, this is the group of people who have my back and support me. We can work together to not just make Civic Hall a better place, but NYC, even the world.”

“My parents grew up during the Korean War. As young children they had no resources and food was scarce. The only thing available to them was education. It was a ladder out.”

“Join our community of folks who want to reclaim online argument and build The Library of The Best Arguments. We won’t answer every question. But by arguing, we’ll get closer.”

“The power of CH is in its community. Now it’s time to turn the dial up on that potential and let us see what that kind of light can accomplish when it’s got full [insert preferred renewable energy source] behind it.”

“The real world for us is the Enterprise, the business, not the consumer. There are lots of people gathering demand-side analysis, but few are focusing on information for the supply side, the institutions.”

“Too often journalists are writing to a New York Times audience. But if you walk through immigrant-heavy areas you won’t find a Times. That to me is a failure to serve and we don’t want to fall into that trap. We need to figure out a way to reach them.”

“Many people in government like to say that, ‘It takes a village to get someone off the street.’ That isn’t true. It takes an apartment to bring someone off the street. When they say it takes dozens to convince someone to get off the street, that’s actually more about the bureaucracy.”

“My eyes opened to this profound thing that is the natural world. Even if we hold it as precious, you can’t just appreciate it. Valuable things are not necessarily guaranteed; they’re often threatened. Seeing the environmental degradation all around me, I realized that we have to fight for things we love.”

“For me, empathy is a developable skill set that enables people to take each other’s perspective and begin the process of listening to each other. That is just the beginning. It’s not an aspirational value goal like l-o-v-e, it’s very different than that. It’s very functional and tangible.”

“Technology can’t solve everything but, if used well, can scale up impact.”

“I believe in leadership that listens and self-reflects, marketing that cares about its audiences, and civic tech communities that strive for equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

“Feeding people is radical. Things that are sort of quotidian are radical. Giving money to poor people is radical. Letting poor people control their own destinies is radical. Changing the power dynamic is radical.”

“I identify as a “defensive pessimist” and so I plan for the worst as a way to mitigate anxiety and in order not to experience the worst. What does it mean on the front-end to thoughtfully design — to so deeply understand the way that homophobia, racism, transphobia, racism, & sexism operate — as to anticipate how tech might be used in this way, and to prevent it from happening?”

“How do you create awareness and a conversation in a way that reduces stigma, provides adequate resources, as well as a holistic perspective? How do we get well?”

“Our work is always informed by social goals and involves the client as thought partners. Each project is unique but based on a standard framework of rigorous research, stakeholder involvement and financial realities.”

“I’m endlessly fascinated by the notion of change in the City and gentrification. And I think very long and hard how in the world gentrification can be more of a force for good without negative repercussions. I don’t have the answer for that yet.”

“I love that everyone in the Cohort is doing vastly different things. Pooling the knowledge together of everyone in the room. You can bounce ideas without judgment. This is a safe space where we can grapple with challenges.”

“It doesn’t really fit our culture. The measurements come from India and Bangladesh. It doesn’t really apply to South American women. We are empowered and disempowered in different ways in South America.”

“And, in the age of regurgitated/”aggregated” news, I’ve developed an allergy to writing anything that’s not fiercely original. If I’m not contributing anything new and worthwhile to the public discourse I really don’t see why I should write it (or you should read it!)”

“If LinkedIn were human and cared about your personal passions and the legacy you want to leave behind, it would be me.”

“Code should not only be well documented, but it should also withstand scrutiny by multiple parties who don’t see your code in the same way. Code that is the product of a diverse group of people is code that will stand up stronger.”

“Social media means we don’t have to beg corporate media for coverage anymore. We can create a situation where the media had to cover us. By making it a trend and creating powerful images in cities, a media that didn’t want to cover Black Lives Matter has to cover police violence for clicks, or they’ll look like fools.”

“I think what the tribe instills is a support system that fosters courage and permission to live out loud. And live the way that you want to even if it’s unorthodox. When Tribe is everywhere, it gives you the confidence to go anywhere.”

“Community coming together can change what we know is health. That means that the solution we want to see and the change we want to see resides in lived experience. And within those, directly in our communities.”

“How can we engage our demographic, in our way, using our cultural competencies and nuances, and the way we move? How can we employ information that might be hard to read, or just disconnected from our personal identity? How do we create a culture where you can reimagine your position and your participation within the system?”

“Most nonprofits and political campaigns really fail to articulate a theory of change that takes a vision of changing the world and a strategy to get there. And making it clear how we can do that.”

“We [Vishal and co-founder Bernard] both got into this after the 2016 elections. We wanted to give Democrats the tools they needed to reach people at scale, and to have meaningful conversations in order to get people involved with the Resistance and elections to elect more Democrats and pass more progressive laws, in 2017, 2018, and beyond.”

“My intention is to shine a spotlight, to give people a voice.”

“Movement is still taught the way music used to be listened to before the invention of the phonograph. I was trying to develop a way to allow movement learning to enter the digital economy and I thought communicating information with touch (haptics) could transform the industry. There was just one problem, there was no haptic language!”

“From social movements I learned how my role as a journalist was not only about “giving voice,” but actually uplifting and empowering communities through my understanding of tech and storytelling.”

“My focus is on finding the best ways to solve persistent human problems. I’ve done this inside government and now I am doing it outside!”

“When I come into contact someone with complementary skills to mine, I can contemplate putting together a team for larger projects I can’t otherwise do on my own.”

“When you are liberated, I am liberated, too. Our liberations are connected. Your fight is important. Your fight is my fight.”

“Without public data and technology, Housing Rights Initiative wouldn’t exist. Landlords are required to register a plethora of information with various city agencies. Therefore, every irregularity and illegality is a matter of public record. The government isn’t looking, but we can.”

“I believe in the communal way of living. I’ve always had a sense — you live together, you die together.”

“Not only are folks at Civic Hall doing great things for the world, but they are willing to take a moment to hear about what I’m doing, offer thoughts and advice, and to share the nuts and bolts of what their projects are.”

“I’m someone who likes to have their brain stretched. To think in many different worlds and see how it makes everything more interesting.”

“There has always been a missing link to Conscious Capitalism. We believe that the proof is in the data.”

“We talk about women running, amplifying their voices. But we don’t tell men to support women candidates. They should donate to women. Knock on doors and GOTV. Even manage a woman’s campaign.”

“We have to start with kids. Because the problem is, if we don’t start really young, these kids will never know how to be citizens.”

“Citizens should be able to hold their elected officials accountable and there should be that path all the way to law. I think that we can make it happen.”

“I was happy to learn online about the social tech focus of Civic Hall and felt this would be a good match for the work. I was also excited to become part of a larger community working with social tech.”

“We’ve got to do something. The future of investigative reporting and accountability journalism has to be nonprofit. But we can’t expect foundations to sustain it forever. Tarbell.org can make a difference.”

“It took me three years to process, and I realized that we had created a system that recruits people who are megalomaniacs, but cripplingly insecure. When people begin to lose faith in leaders, they begin to disengage from the political process. And these even more flawed leaders, who are then under less scrutiny, try to get away with more. It’s a cosmic downward spiral.”

“When you look at the evidence we have regarding the efficacy of various campaign tactics, the results are somewhat bleak. A soon-to-be-released meta-analysis of internal and external studies of the persuasive effect of campaign tactics on candidate choice found a net effect of zero.”

“There’s a reason why people aren’t civically engaged. In Mexico everybody goes to vote. It’s a deeply installed habit! For example, there are special ballots for kids there. It’s like celebrating your birthday, or brushing your teeth.”

“What scares me where we are today… 4chan and Reddit — I look and I see a technology let loose that amplifies anger. Think deeply about a way to use technology to create meaningful, rational, balanced and thoughtfully engaging conversations that aren’t just folks throwing rocks at one another.”

“Our API will soon allow third-party civic tech, organizational and personal growth apps to seamlessly interconnect, creating a comprehensive ecosystem for making things better.”

“My core passion is for inclusive, responsible media representation. It’s what we’re exposed to in the media that drives our culture’s narratives and, fortunately, new media is allowing all sorts of methods for people to take control of their own narratives.”

“Is your action creating community, or doing peaceful disruption? If it’s not doing both, you need to rethink your action plan.”

“RSC meets every week, all two hundred plus of us. The best people I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. The most generous, the most creative; working for something bigger than themselves.”

“Having worked in the U.S. on projects for both FrontlineSMS and Delib, I appreciate that when it comes to community engagement, rulemaking, social impact and designing for local, that the US is more like 50 different countries. I’d like to share related war stories and develop partnerships where we can help each other.”

“The fact that there are people who can help at the local level is very powerful. I am alive because of people like that.”

“You really can’t be successful without the three pillars of politics, policy, and press, which is what we uniquely combine and bring them together. Oftentimes we figure out the problem we want to solve, we think about the solution, and we go find the client. It’s a backwards business model.”

“Re-evaluate the worth of your content in terms of authenticity. And ask yourselves, “Why do you want to use video? What type of media might serve you best? Sometimes the best impact is not through media, but creative action like a protest or a concert.”