This is the third of our podcasts from Civic Radio, exploring the role of the ‘civic’ in today’s world – a world in which commerce often squeezes out our collective experience as citizens, and in which the term ‘citizenship’ is usually used to mean the individual’s relationship with government, rather than citizens’ interdependence with each other.

This is the theme explored by tech activist Laurenellen McCann, in conversation with Jo Barratt, In particular they consider the emergence of the ‘Civic Tech’ movement, in which Laurenellen played a major role, but of which she is now increasingly critical.

The roots of civic tech are in gov2.0, E.gov, and OpenGov in the early 2000s and are for the tech initiated.  Civic technology is vital, but, says LaurenEllen, what does a white tech dude have in common with a single mother on welfare? How can he really understand what she needs?  Open Gov techies continue to work within a definition of citizenship which focuses on the citizen’s relationship to governrnent, how their preoccupations and their ‘solutions’ work for people with different and specific needs?

Civic tech should be about people, rather than technology, so, Instead, she suggests, a new definition for civic tech,  “Any tool, approach, process or solution which is created with public good in mind” and she argues that we should move from a civic tech which is based on ‘hardware, software and APIs’ to put technology at the service of deliberative processes, in which everyone can become involved.

Our podcast is an extract from the Civic Radio podcast – for the full version click here.

You can also subscribe to Civic Radio on Itunes.

Laurenellen McCann @elle_mccann.

Laurenellen is a key player in the world of technology and democracy in the US, here she is on a panel at the Code for America Summit 2014  with Catherine Bracy, Diana Nucera and Denise Taylor)…….

Tags: Citizenship, Civic Radio, Civic Technology, Inclusive communities, Laurenellen Mccann