Tag: crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing the constitution to unify Iceland

As part of my master’s degree in Digital Culture and Society I wrote an essay in January about “how the use of media technologies can help strengthen the feeling of community of the Icelandic People in the process of crowdsourcing their constitution”.

Though I don’t believe the (flawless) solution to modern democratic governing is involving the public in every process, in my opinion the risk of peer pressure is overwhelming, I do admire how well thought through and thorough the Icelandic crowdsourcing project was.

Therefor I was sad to read how the Icelandic government this week overturned the publics desire for change and thereby risk to damage the public believe in democracy for many decades to come.

If you want to read more, you can find my essay here: Crowdsourcing the constitution to unify Iceland

A bit of background

Post the financial collapse in 2008 the Icelandic people went to the streets banging on pots and pans demanding government to step down and a new constitution to be written, securing transparency in both government and the financial system, declaring non-privately owned national resources as national property as well as modernising the voting system.

As a result the government willingly stepped down and subsequently, to re-establish trust in the democratic system post the collapse, they chose to crowdsource the new constitution.

Much have been written about the process, most significantly the reports written by Professor of Economics Thorvaldur Gylfason available here:

Constitutions: Financial Crisis Can Lead to Change 
From Collapse to Constitution: The Case of Iceland 

Following the Icelandic people backed the proposal (66% voted for the new constitution, turnout was 49% of Iceland’s 235,000 eligible voters).  But apparently this didn’t proof anything for parliament, as they this Wednesday decided to postpone the decision of a new constitution and complicate the process of the decision further by raising the number of votes needed to confirm it by referendum.

Crowdsourcing ved et tilfælde

Det hele startede for seks dage siden. 8. marts kl. 8.22, hvor forfatteren Linda Grant skrev et uskyldigt feministisk tweet for at fejre Kvindernes Internationale Kampdag:

Tweetiwd

Linda Grant havde længe været frustreret over, at unge er historieløse, når det kommer til feministernes betydning for samfundet. Men i løbet af dagen fik hun tusinder af svar – hun retweetede en del af de svar, hun fik – og projektet eskalerede og endte på den måde som et crowdsourcing-projekt om feminisme og sexisme. For et par dage siden tilbød en bruger at samle tweetsene som dokumentation for eftertiden på sitet A Thousand Reasons (why feminism is still relevant and nescessary).

Man kan mene om emnet, hvad man vil, men dette er et af de mest interessante og vidtrækkende crowdsourcing-projekter, jeg er faldet over, hvor almindelige brugere (ikke nørder med stor erfaring i data-behandling) har brændt nok for et emne til at byde ind og skabe en dokumentation ingen journalist havde formået at samle, om han eller hun så havde brugt uger på det.

Læs Linda Grants historie om tweetet og sitet her: Twitter’s tales of sexism