Wonks and War Rooms

Mini-episode coming at you. Elizabeth closes out season 2 with an update on plans for next season and a request to you listeners!

While we are away you can follow Elizabeth's work on Twitter @lizdubois
Check out the Pol Comm Tech Lab website: www.polcommtech.ca

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Sherry Aske, former CBC multimedia journalist, and Elizabeth chat about the fourth estate and the networked fourth estate. They dive into the origins of theories and the range of information producers that make up the networked fourth estate. Sherry and Elizabeth also reflect on the power dynamics at play between actors in the networked fourth estate and what that means for who gets heard in the current media environment.

Additional Resources
This open-access academic journal article by Yochai Benkler (2011) introduces the concept of the networked fourth estate.

Wikipedia provides a good sketch of the notion of the estates of the realm which is where the idea of the fourth estate comes from.

Elizabeth notes that Anonymous and WikiLeaks are groups connected to the networked fourth estate. Here is a recent summary of Anonymous's recent activities. Benkler discusses the role of WikiLeaks in the networked fourth estate in the journal article above.

Elizabeth also mentions previous episodes of the podcast on the high-choice media environment and assemblages.

Sherry references the Edelman Trust Barometer's gauge of the public's trust in news media. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Shaaz is a Digital Advisor and Director of Digital Transformation for Microsoft and he chats with Elizabeth about what exactly is digital transformation. They go from academic definition, to business buzz words, to practical applications. Shaaz explains why he puts humanity at the centre of digital transformation and why he always wants to focus on "why" (rather than just what fancy new tech can we use).

Additional Resources

Elizabeth uses this academic journal article by Gregory Vial (2019) to define digital transformation.

Tip: You can get access to some articles for free by looking for things like "Open Access" or "Download for Free" - in this case you find the free version by clicking the "View Open Manuscript" link at the top-centre of the page. When academic journals don't have a free version on their main website sometimes the authors upload a pre-print version somewhere else so you can also try your favourite search engine.

Elizabeth mentions the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Curve. Here is an example of the curve which is found in this blog post (the blog post focuses on IOTA/cryptocurrency, but the theory is applied much more broadly). Here is a YouTube video that explains the theory in the context of marketing.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Etienne Rainville of The Boys in Short Pants podcast, former Hill staffer, and government relations expert chats with Elizabeth about liquid modernity. They chat about how the fast-paced nature of politics, how political actors learn about the issues, and the role of Twitter in Canadian politics and policy making.

Additional Resources

Chapter 4 in the book Political Communication and Social Theory by Davis is a great place to start to understand liquid politics.

Etienne also mentions Policy Options, Canada2020, Canada Strong and Free Network and Parliamentary Committees in this episode.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Co-founder of CivicTechTO and self-declared certified nerd, Anowa Quarcoo chats with Elizabeth about the idea of citizenship. They talk about legal and cultural definitions of citizenship before jumping into a discussion of what counts as a citizen in a digital era. From civic leaders, to publics, to users, to citizens - they talk about how some terms can be empowering while others can be exclusionary. Key take-away? Context matters. You need to ask why you are trying to define a group with this kind of term and pick accordingly.

Additional Resources

There are a lot of definitions of citizenship out there. Elizabeth summarizes legal and cultural definitions quickly in the episode, drawing on what she and Florian Martin-Bariteau wrote in their Introduction to the Citizenship in a Connected Canada book (available open access!).

Check out CivicTechTO, one of North America's largest civic hacking communities.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Mor is a self-described data geek, she chats with Elizabeth about what open data actually is, how it can be used, and why it isn't always the perfect fix (but still helpful) for increasing government transparency and accountability. Hear about examples from government and philanthropy in Canada, Israel, and the UK.

Additional Resources
Two useful websites for defining open data are: open.canada.ca and opendefinition.org.

In the episode, Mor  mentions a McKinsey report that discusses the potential economic value of open data.

The episode also includes lots of examples of open data and its users. Check out:
1) GTFS (that thing that helps you catch your buses!)
2) City of Ottawa’s open portal
3) 360Giving, an organization that uses open data to improve charitable giving.
4) IATI, International Aid Transparency Initiative and their standard 

Mor also mentions an episode of another podcast called Wind of Change which used freedom of information requests to learn about the CIA's possible role in writing the song Wind of Change. Note, in the episode Mor says FBI but she meant CIA.

Last but not least, if you're interested in Digital Government don’t forget to check out Wonks and War Rooms Season 2, Episode 3.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Megan Beretta is a public servant who is dedicated to digital government. She and Elizabeth chat about the evolution from e-government to digital government, where we find digital gov efforts in Canada (also, who can actually get stuff done), and opportunities for increased accessibility.

Additional Resources

We've mentioned the Citizenship in a Connected Canada book before - it is the one Elizabeth co-edited. It is available open access (that means free!). There are three relevant chapters for today's episode! Links below are to SSRN which is a repository for pre-prints, you can also download or order the full book here.

Ch. 4: Elizabeth mentions a model of e-government and transition to digital government in the episode. You can find a good breakdown of that model in the Canadian context in Kent Aitken's chapter: Government in the Connected Era.

Ch. 5: Megan mentions Amanda Clarke's work (which is vast) but you can find an accessible overview of some key points in her chapter: Data Governance, The Next Frontier of Digital Government Research and Practice.

Ch. 7: While you're at it, check out Megan's own chapter: Influencing the Internet, Lobbyists and Interest Groups’ Impact on Digital Rights in Canada.

For more information on how digital government works at the federal level in Canada you can check out the government website and the Minister for Digital Government's mandate letter.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Vass Bednar is a public policy expert who chats with Elizabeth about the idea of surveillance capitalism. Talking about a few Canadian examples, they talk about how tech companies collect and use data from their users, how privacy policy might be a red herring and how incentive structures in the tech industry contribute to the system of surveillance capitalism.

Additional Resources:

Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is the key text. There are also a lot of summaries of the book in blog posts, podcasts, and videos. One of my favourite short reviews of the concept comes from the Fortune Magazine YouTube channel, found here.

Check out Vass's newsletter, Regs to Riches - of particular interest to this conversation are her pieces on Laying down the Loblaw and Loblaw media.

Vass also wrote a piece in the Globe and Mail: Loblaw’s points economy for private-health data follows Big Tech’s playbook.

In the episode Vass mentioned a weather app - check out The Weather Network's description of their "precise location forecast" which includes information about user privacy. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Alexander Dirksen, a proud member of Métis Nation BC, researcher and strategist chats with  Elizabeth about what it means to decolonize digital spaces and why it is so crucial to re-centre conversations about tech development through the lens of decolonization. 

Additional Resources

• Decolonizing Digital Space (Chapter 1) - this is the chapter written by Alexander Dirksen that is mentioned throughout this episode. The Citizenship in a Connected Canada book is available open access which means anyone can read it for free!
• In the episode Alexander mentions nation-to-nation relationships. You can learn more about it in this speech:  Realizing a Nation-to-Nation Relationship with the Indigenous Peoples of Canada (Wilson-Raybould).
• Turtle Island is used in this work to refer to the unceded territories of Indigenous Nations that transcend colonial borders.
• Decolonizing Digital: The Future is Indigenous from Animikii, an Indigenous-led tech firm. You can also find their podcast by following the link!
• Digital privacy law is being updated for the first time in decades, and it's imperative we get it right by Vass Bendar and Mark Surman provide relevant additional context about federal policy in this opinion piece.
• From the People is an online, Indigenous-led marketplace for Indigenous peoples that was established in response to the pandemic.
• MIT’s Indigenous Digital Delegation is an incredible convening of Indigenous leaders to discuss the digital age.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Elizabeth here with a quick update on what you can expect from Season Two of Wonks and War Rooms. The first full episode will drop Wednesday, February 17!

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.