Crowdsourcing Congress?

Within the NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s GovLab, which is an effort to enhance the ability of people and institutions to connect and solve public problems, lives a data project called CrowdLaw. CrowdLaw is a platform that harnesses data along with the ideas and knowledge of the public sphere to improve the quality of lawmaking. In an era when many citizens around the world are fed up with their governments, CrowdLaw has created a space where crowdsourced lawmaking initiatives can take shape.

Over 25 public engagement initiatives are globally using CrowdLaw in different ways to build platforms, policies, and/or processes to solve regional governance problems. In some countries, participatory crowdsourcing is being used by NGOs, while in other parts, it is being led by parliaments. Additionally, crowdsourcing is happening at different stages of the lawmaking process in different countries. For example, Croatia is using CrowdLaw to crowdsource information on how best to draft legislation, while in the Basque Country, citizens are being asked to set the legislative agenda itself.

This new form of democratic participation will certainly add more voices into the mix, but it is unclear whether this will lead to smarter policy making by our elected and appointed officials. As the Forbes article points out, it will be up to governments to deftly separate valuable ideas from the volume of public comments and submissions that pour in, as well as to set parameters for what kind of information they are looking for, what purpose that information will serve them, and what the best interface to receive that information looks like. Nevertheless, as our governments grow more dysfunctional, extreme, and/or corrupt, increased digital civic participation presents us with an opportunity to participate in the rule- and norm-setting process for the kinds of places we want to live in.