Reinvent the Role of Technology in Politics

Where will innovations in digital technologies push the field of politics in upcoming election cycles?
We’ve experienced six election cycles since Howard Dean’s groundbreaking online campaign in 2004, and every two years, various new developments provide strategic advantage to a candidate that sets a new bar for what then becomes standard practice in the field. What developments in the upcoming 2016 election cycle will push the field forward once again? Ben Rattray, the Founder and CEO of Change.org, anchored a great group of participants in this fascinating and timely roundtable. Rattray pointed out far too much energy has gone into improving the accuracy of target advertising and empowering incumbents rather than changing the way regular citizens can interact with their elected officials and government. Democracy has suffered, particularly with the increasing influence of big money in politics. Our participants discussed ways that developing technology may come to shift this power balance.