Can "Open Data" Improve Democratic Governance?

Can Open Data Improve Democratic Governance?
Thursday September 12, 2013, 8:30 am to 6:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
University of California, Berkeley

Sponsored by:
UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies &
CITRIS Data & Democracy Initiative

Co-Sponsors: California Forward, UC Berkeley School of
Information, UC Berkeley Canadian Studies Program,
and the Canadian Consulate General/San Francisco-Silicon Valley, Accela, IBM, Socrata

Twitter Hashtag: #OpenDataUC13

Keynote Addresses

California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom
& IBM Information Strategist, Steve Adler

Open data, social media, geographic information systems, wireless communications, and mobile devices are transforming the relationship between government institutions at all levels and the constituents they represent. The open data movement, fueled by technical innovations, offers opportunities to increase accountability and citizen participation through greater transparency and by generating more effective, crowd-sourced solutions to public problems. At the same time, questions of access and inclusion must also be addressed. Which groups are enabled to participate by these tools and whose voices are omitted? This one-day conference explores the impact of open data on public policy and democratic governance in the digital age.

Conference Schedule

8:30-9:00am    Coffee and Registration

9:00-9:10 am     Welcome & Opening Remarks

Paul Wright, Director, CITRIS, UC Berkeley
Jack Citrin, Director, Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley


9:10-10:40am   Panel I: Open Data and Civic Participation: Examples from the U.S., Europe and Africa

This panel will review the development of the open data movement by drawing on experiences and achievements of programs in select American and European cities and the African Development Bank. What lessons can be learned from previous projects and what emerging trends show promise for increasing transparency and civic participation?

Carole Post, Chief Strategy Officer, New York Law School; former Chief Information Officer, New York City

Stephane Grumbach, Senior Scientist, INRIA

Richard Stirling, Membership Program Manager, Open Data Institute

Jeanne M. Holm, Chief Evangelist, data.gov, Chief Knowledge Architect, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Beejaye Kokil, Economic and Social Statistics Division, African Development Bank

Moderator:  Jasjeet Sekhon, Professor of Political Science & Statistics, UC Berkeley

10:40-11:00am    Coffee break

11:00am-12:30pm    Panel II: Public Open Data and the Private Sector

This panel will feature representatives of start-ups and established companies using new technology for open-government initiatives. In addition to discussing how their products meet the needs of government and citizens, they will explore how public open data can help drive the creation of new businesses and stimulate the information economy.

Maury Blackman, President & CEO, Accela

Diego May, CEO, Junar

Tom Spengler, CEO, Granicus

Zac Bookman, Co-Founder, OpenGov

Eddie Tejeda, Co-Founder, OpenOakland, & Co-Founder, Civic Insight

Saf Rabah, VP, Products, Socrata

Moderator:    Camille Crittenden, Deputy Director of CITRIS, & Director of CiTRIS Data & Democracy Initiative

12:30-1:00pm    Hosted Lunch Break

1:00-1:45pm    Keynote Address:

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
“Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government”

Introduced by Ken Goldberg, Faculty Director, CITRIS Data & Democracy Initiative

1:45-3:15pm     Panel III: Navigating the Sea of Data Without Getting Lost  

This panel features advocates and practitioners of the open data movement from the nonprofit sector. They will provide specific examples of open data projects and data visualization as applied to legislation, campaign finance, law enforcement and public health.

Laurenellen McCann, National Policy Director, Sunlight Foundation

Jay Costa, Program Director, MapLight

Matthew Scharpnick, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Elefint Designs

Eric Cadora, Founder & Director, Justice Mapping Center

Moderator:    Warren Sack, Professor, Digital Arts and New Media, UC Santa Cruz

3:15-3:30pm     Coffee Break

3:30-4:45pm    Panel IV: Transparency and its Discontents: Democratic Prospects and Challenges

This panel will take a broad view of the opportunities and challenges presented by the massive volume of public data now available. How can governments and citizens mine the advantages of greater information while also attending to concerns of privacy, equity and access?

Megan Finn, Postdoc, Microsoft Research New England

David Cloud, Vera Institute of Justice

Michael Gurstein, Journal of Community Informatics

Jonathan Reichental, Chief Information Officer, City of Palo Alto, CA

Moderator:   Henry Brady, Dean, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley 

4:45-5:15pm    Closing Keynote

Steve Adler, IBM Information Strategist

Introduced by AnnaLee Saxenian, Dean & Professor in the School of Information, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

5:15-5:30pm     Closing Remarks 

Camille Crittenden, Deputy Director, CITRIS

5:30-6:30pm    Hosted Reception (Atrium)

Sponsored by the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco/Silicon Valley featuring brief remarks by Consul General Cassie Doyle.

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Conference Coordinators:

Camille Crittenden, Deputy Director, CITRIS
ccrittenden@citris-uc.org; (510) 643-8834

Marc A. Levin, Associate Director, Institute of Governmental Studies
marcl@berkeley.edu; (510) 643-6476  

http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/open-data


 

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Ticket Refund Policy:

Due to the limited number of tickets available to our events we apply the following cancellation and refund policy:

• Requests for refunds received more than fourteen working days prior to the date of the event will receive a full refund
• Requests for refunds received within fourteen working days of the event date, refund will not be given

Cancellation requests should be made via email or phone to: lorie@citris-uc.org or (510) 643-2217

If, for any reason, CITRIS has to cancel an event we will notify you by email if you have provided that information upon registration and will refund your ticket in full.