Democracy means allowing everyday people to have their voices heard on public matters involving their communities. One of the goals of civic technology is to allow a more diverse group of people to have input on government affairs through the use of technology and the internet. 

Beth Noveck, author of Solving Public Problems and Director of the Governance Lab, chats with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Danny O'Brien about how civic technology can enhance people's relationship with the government and help improve their communities.

In this episode you’ll learn about:

• What civic technology is and how it can be used to approach and fix public problems while enhancing the relationship between people and their government.
• The importance of deciding what problem you are trying to solve before working on a solution.
• Ways that civic technology can ensure that the government is held accountable for its actions.
• How we can build civic technology tools to increase inclusion, specifically for those who have been marginalized or previously left out of the conversation.
• Why civic technology allows for more people to get engaged in their democracy.
• The good and bad that can come with governments increasing their knowledge of technology.

If you have any feedback on this episode, please email [email protected]. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod204 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. 

This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.

Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. 

This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: 

http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792

Drops of H2O (The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang Ft: Airtone

http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mwic/58883

Xena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwic 

http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612

Kalte Ohren by Alex Ft: starfrosch & Jerry Spoon

http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/snowflake/59564rr4

Come Inside by Snowflake Ft: Starfrosch, Jerry Spoon, Kara Square, spinningmerkaba

http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681

Come Inside by Zep Hurme Ft: snowflake