Building a 21st Century Democracy
Wed, October 18, 2017
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PT
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley
Talk Abstract
The internet has exponentially increased the public’s ability to follow and weigh in on current issues, though the tone and quality of public debate has arguably declined. Increased access has not lead to better policy or a more functioning governing system… yet. The limitations of first generation digital engagement are not merely technical; they are inextricably intertwined with the legacy governing systems to which they connect. Our system is due for upgrade.
About the speaker:
Marci Harris is cofounder and CEO of POPVOX, a neutral, nonpartisan platform for legislative information and civic engagement. Before POPVOX, Marci was tax, trade, and health counsel to Congressman Pete Stark, and a member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee team for the Affordable Caer Act. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland; a J.D. from the University of Memphis; and an LL.M. from the American University Washington College of Law. She was an inaugural Technology and Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Ash Center in 2016 and a 2017 New America California fellow.
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Free and open to the public. Register online by Monday for a free lunch at UC Berkeley. The CITRIS Research Exchange Seminar Series is a weekly dialogue highlighting leading voices on societal-scale research issues. Each one-hour seminar starts at 12:00 pm Pacific time and is hosted live at Sutardja Dai Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.
Watch a live broadcast on the CITRIS YouTube channel.
Previous talks may also be found on YouTube.
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