Technology, Transparency and Government: NDI Staff on Using Technology for Democracy

New technologies are giving citizens more information about their governments than ever before, and they hold the potential to create even more transparency. But the same solutions do not necessarily apply across the board, and one challenge is finding the right remedy for individual situations.

These and other issues were explored at a conference at Stanford University, Right to Information and Transparency in the Digital Age: Policy, Tools and Practices, held March 11-12, at which NDI was invited to present five papers examining approaches it has taken to information sharing in various countries. Over the last 30 years, the Institute has helped local partners around the world use appropriate technologies to strengthen democratic institutions, safeguard elections and increase citizen participation.

One of the papers, Political Organizing in Closed Societies: Building Support for Democratic Change in Belarus, explored the Institute’s efforts in Belarus, which has a closed and opaque government where little information is available. Lindsay Beck, senior program assistant for NDI’s technology programs, looked at how technology could make information more accessible to citizens, opposition parties and voter registration groups.

She described how NDI worked with local partners to set up ways to more securely collect, store and manage voter information through the development of a locked-down online management system. Previously, voter information was inaccessible to members of opposition political parties, making communication with supporters and collection of voter data almost impossible. Voter information was collected securely using tools like Tails (The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, a portable operating system that allows users to browse anonymously without leaving a trace on your computer. In upcoming 2014 local elections and the 2015 presidential election this information will help parties and political organizations share voter data, and communicate with and engage supporters.

NDI used a completely different -- and lower tech approach -- in Liberia, where it worked with a former chief clerk from the Montana State Legislature to create a bill tracking system. It had three key ingredients - large manila envelopes, an excel spreadsheet and bills in the process of becoming laws - which were already available so no training or new equipment was needed.

In a paper titled, “Small Small”: Challenges and Lessons Learned in Integrating New Communication Strategies and Technology into West African Legislatures, Lauren Kunis, an NDI senior program officer for Central and West Africa, explained that “small, small” is a Liberian expression that means “slowly but surely”, and said that in some situations, incremental changes lead to the most success over time with technology-based programs.

The new system helps members of the House of Representatives keep track of where a bill is in the legislative process and who has possession of the physical document. The information is kept on a tracking sheet and updated onto an Excel spreadsheet, which is then printed out and posted on a bulletin board, keeping the process transparent and making the information available to the media and all all other interested parties. While not the most cutting edge technology, it is an appropriate one based on the legislature’s resources and level of technological expertise.

The paper highlights the importance of relationship building within legislatures, designing projects that are the right size and cost, and making step-by-step instead of drastic changes. Smaller-scale projects can change opinions about the importance of technology, which helps garner support for future projects.

A paper by Chris Doten, NDI technology program manager, focused on the challenge presented when a legislature makes information available but citizens have no means to access it. In Open Data is the Beginning, Not the End: Civil Society Organizations as Analysts to the People, he analyzes NDI’s work with Freedom Fone during elections last year in Ghana. The project aimed to make election information and civic education lessons accessible to radio stations over mobile phone networks that don’t require access to the Internet. The goal was to disseminate information faster, cheaper and more easily than before, when information was burned onto CDs and then mailed or driven around to radio stations.

Doten argues that election data should be publicly available, but if there is no distribution system, it becomes the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it. Freedom Fone is an example of a technology that can distribute information over a dispersed, diverse population, without relying on an Internet connection or equipment that radio stations may not have. All they need is a mobile phone.

Real Names and Responsible Speech: The cases of South Korea, China and Facebook, written by NDI’s David Caragliano, argues that the benefits of anonymous speech online outweigh the costs. For at least a decade, governments have considered requiring web users to register their real names and identification numbers with online service providers before posting comments on the providers’ websites in an effort to enforce to responsible speech. A close examination suggests that real name registration by governments is also part of a strategy to silence dissenting voices. In authoritarian as well as democratic contexts, however, implementation of real name policies has been uneven and generally ineffective. The paper suggests that the cost of enforcing real name registration makes it an unwelcome proposition for the online service providers that would have to implement it. In time, Internet regulators may conclude that real name registration is more trouble than it is worth.

The final paper, Enhancing Citizen Participation Through Information and Communications Technology, written by Koebel Price, senior advisor on NDI’s civic participation team, found that more research into the the outcomes of technology-based programs is required. While more people are using technology in democracy promotion projects, the success rates of these programs and technological tools are rarely measured or assessed. Using Uganda as a case study, Price concluded that technology and communication advances alone are not enough to combat entrenched power inequalities; civic education, dialogue and participation are also required to carry out successful democratic promotion projects.

The conference included 14 speakers and 19 presentations on topics such as citizen journalism, crowdsourcing and e-democracy. Other presentations covered an interactive voice forum in India called CGNet Swara, a platform that allows citizens to record and listen to messages on important local topics; the crowdsourcing event that helped draft Iceland’s constitution; and the Botswana Speak program, an initiative that uses mobile technology to connect citizens with governmental leaders at the local, regional and national level through a tool called the Parliamentary Communication System. Beyond the presentations, workshop participants explored ways to use technology to store, process and distribute public information for citizens and governments.

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Published April 15, 2013