democratisation

The power to keep conversations between human beings modest can not be outsourced to technology and a couple of billionaires. Read the article Marleen Stikker and Sander van der Waal wrote for NRC (in Dutch).

 

How democratic are policy labs, and do they really have influence? We are publishing the master thesis of Elissa Guedes Cardoso on this subject.

 

How do we create a world that is free, fair and alive? With keynote speakers David Bollier and Silke Helfrich.

 

The Cities for Digital Rights conference in Amsterdam couldn’t have started with a more urgent keynote speaker than activist Bianca Wylie.

 

In this project we sketch a picture of the dilemmas that digitisation entails within public administration and the effect this has on society.

 

During the 'Day of the local democracy' in Nieuwegein three tools will be presented that Waag made available together with Network Democracy and the ministry of Internal Affairs in the project 'E-Participation tools in The Netherlands'.

 

On May 13th, Transparant Netherlands, a data platform developed at Waag in the past months, was launched. It reveals the links between politicians, the government, organisations and the business world.

 

In Gdansk, ‘the city of freedom’, is not just a hollow catchphrase. More than 35 years ago this city was the birthplace of the shipyard trade union that grew out to be an important Soviet dissident: the Solidarity Movement led by Lech Walęsa. Supported by the CIA, Walęsa became the first post-Soviet president in a free Poland.

 

The fifth edition of Let’s Fix the Internet was about an open and free internet. Four speakers indicated why a free and open internet is important and relevant. They all showed that the state and the citizen in these dynamics have an unequal position, that citizens try to protect their civil rights again and again in the information society and that governments are not always able to protect these in a good way.

 

From 15-21 September 2013 the Amsterdam Urban Innovation Week 2013 will be held, initiated by Pakhuis de Zwijger in collaboration with PICNIC, Waag, the Amsterdam City Council and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

 

The birth of the personal computer, the graphical user interface, the World Wide Web and the 'Internet of Things' have launched our global society into the so-called “information age”.

 

During the debate ‘Under the hood of the Internet' opinion leaders and thinkers will discuss the themes Infrastructures of Power, Politicians and Citizens with you.

 

The Dutch contitution needs an update. It is clearly outdated on a number of items (anyone still using the telegraph?).

 

On Saturday 8 September, Apps for Democracy took place at the Dutch House of Representatives in The Hague. Organized by the House itself, the Open State Foundation and Netwerk Democratie, a select group of makers and thinkers discussed the way that Open Data can contribute to break up policy processes and empower the democracy. Direct reason was the (enhanced) version of the Parlis system, that opens up the documents circulating in parliament. On invitation of Gerdi Verbeet, new applications were made at the spot that can contribute to the transparancy of the parliament.

 

On 11 April 2012, the Dutch conference ‘Een parlement met 17,6 miljoen zetels – De burger aan de macht in 2020’ took place about technological developments and how the internet and social media are changing the playing field between institutions and citizens. Read the blogpost in Dutch.