Getting tech right in Iowa and elsewhere requires insight into data, human behavior
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For the full article visit: https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/13/getting-tech-right-in-iowa-and-elsewhere-requires-insight-into-data-human-behavior/
Getting tech right in Iowa and elsewhere requires insight into data, human behavior
'Technology won't fix a broken policy - the key is understanding what it is good for'
Hollie Russon Gilman
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Hollie Russon Gilman is a Fellow at New America's Political Reform Program, Lecturer at Columbia University, a Non-Resident Fellow at Georgetown's Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and is the co-author of Civic Power: Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Crisis.
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Tara Dawson McGuinness
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Tara Dawson McGuinness, a former senior advisor to President Obama, is a Senior Fellow at New America and teaches public policy in the McCourt school at Georgetown University.
What happened in Iowa's Democratic caucus last week is a textbook example of how applying technological approaches to public sector work can go badly wrong just when we need it to go right.
While it's possible to conclude that Iowa teaches us that we shouldn't let tech anywhere near a governmental process, this is the wrong conclusion to reach, and mixes the complexity of what happened and didn't happen. Technology won't fix a broken policy and the key is understanding what it is good for.
What does it look like to get technology right in solving public problems? There are three core principles that can help more effectively build public-interest technology: solve an actual problem, design with and for users and their lives in mind and star