Transparency in politics and media: FairSpin visits the Personal Democracy Forum

This week we attended the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City.  Now in its sixth year, PDF gathers together over 1,000 technologists, journalists, and political organizers to explore how technology is changing politics.  We felt that attending this popular conference would be a way for us to learn more about what others are doing in this space, as well as to get feedback from some deep thinkers.  Additionally, a major theme of this year’s conference was “transparency”, which is an issue at the very core of our efforts with FairSpin.

We were also fortunate enough to receive partial sponsorship from Google, who deferred a portion of the conference registration fee for people like ourselves who are experimenting with social media and politics.  We were very grateful for this assistance and we appreciate the fact that Google walks the walk in terms of supporting the efforts of startups and non-profits that are trying to make a difference.

Overall we found PDF an excellent conference.  It was well organized, well-attended, and featured a number of thoughtful speakers on a wide range of topics.  Some specific high points:

• David Weinberger, in a talk entitled “Truth and Transparency”, argued that we should not expect that increasing access to facts and data will inherently lead to harmony and wisdom.  Instead it leads to never-ending debate, argument, and conversation, and this is a good thing that we should design for and embrace.  We couldn’t agree more, and we think that FairSpin is well poised to harness the constructive controversy that erupts when facts and opinions are laid bare.
• Vivek Kundra, White House CIO, announced the launch of USAspending.gov, a site that tracks and visualizes government spending.  This is yet another addition to a growing portfolio of open government initiatives from the Obama administration, including data.gov.  To say it was well received by the audience would be an understatement.
• In a talk entitled “The Dangerous Power of Sharing (Power)”, Mark Pesce noted that “the 21st century will be a series of run-ins between hierarchical organizations and adhocracies” — that is, between traditional government and media and the crowdsourced versions we are fashioning around them.  Pesce sounded a cautionary note by pointing out that such innovations could be used for ill as well as for good.  He also asked the interesting question (paraphrased): “can technology lead activism to be flagged as terrorism?”, citing the Anonymous movement as a possible example.
• A panel comprised of both traditional and new media journalists discussed the challenges in making crowdsourced or “citizen” journalism work in the real world.  Andrew Turner of geocommons.com observed that people need a reason to get involved, and that usually means an issue they care about or that affects people in their lives.  We’ve been doing a lot of thinking along these lines with FairSpin lately and looking for ways to present political news in a manner that people can more easily relate to.  Look for some new things from us in that regard soon.
• We had a good time hanging out with some cool people, including Gabe Rivera (creator of memeorandum, which provides the story feeds for FairSpin today) and Fabrice Florin of NewsTrust (a site that identifies and promotes quality journalism).  Both have been gracious with their time and advice and FairSpin has benefited from it.

There were of course a few low points to report as well:

• Randi Zuckerberg, when asked about Facebook’s continuing refusal to ban holocaust denial content, gave this disappointing non-answer: “free speech is reeeeeally hard.”  Well, that may be true.  But if Pappa Facebook can’t figure out the right thing to do here, what hope do we have for other online communities?  We think that holocaust denial is clearly hate speech, and we’re far from alone.
• There was not nearly enough conservative representation at the conference.  The organizers acknowledged the problem but said that they have made great efforts to expand the audience beyond its liberal core.  It is our hope that this will serve as a wake-up call for right-leaning technologists.  Without voices from all sides of the political spectrum we cannot have a true discussion or debate on the serious issues we face.
• We were bummed we missed a chance to meet Clay Shirky, whose writings have been an inspiration in our work on FairSpin.  Clay was scheduled to participate in a panel at PDF but a conflict came up.

Regardless, we came away from PDF feeling energized.  Why?  Because it is clearer to us than ever that FairSpin is addressing a critical need that people care about: transparency. People on all sides of the political spectrum are hungry for it.  We need it in government perhaps now more than ever given the scale of the challenges we face.  But we also need it in the media, where an explosion of voices online has left us ill-equipped to judge the credibility of sources and the stories they report.  We think the time for FairSpin is now, and we’re back at our computers working hard to make it happen.  Thanks for your help!

Stephen and Dave