These slides are a scholarly analysis of crowdsourcing for law in Finland

1. Is crowdsourcing changing democracy?
Taneli Heikka, OII, 26th Sept 2014

2. Research result:
Yes

3. A new type of citizen.
Knows what he/she
wants.
Is capable of building
and using digital tools to
accomplish results.
Wants results now.

4. What kind of democracy does
crowdsourcing produce?

5. Further results:
A new kind that is in contradiction with the old.
This new citizen moves fast and transgresses boundaries set
by bureacratic processess, spaces and institutions
He/she values accomplishing result and using his/her skills.
”We do it better, faster and cheaper so why won’t you let us
do it?”

6. The science
Reprogramming power through crowdsourcing:
time, space and citizenship in crowdsourcing for law in Finland

7. “The Open Ministry”
Background:
• A new law for crowdsourcing legislation in Finland
• 50 000 names –> initiative MUST go to parliament
• A new government service to crwodsource
initiatives
• A crowdsourcing service built by hacktivists

8. Background:
• It’s used for controversial initiatives
• It makes international and national news
•

9. Questions guiding exploratory research:
1. What is the democratic rationale behind Finland’s Citizens
Initiative Act and its accompanying digital tools?
2. How do digital civic hackers, regulators, campaigners and
politicians describe and practice their democratic values and
objectives?
3. How are these values presented in relation to democratic
institutions?

10. Research data
• Eight semi-structured interviews
• Key players in civic crowdsourcing in Finland
“I do 2013”
campaigners
Regulators
Hacktivists

11. Method
• Qualitative analysis of transcribed interviews.
• Grounded theory inspired approach (Corbin &
Strauss 2008)

12. Theory
• Castells’ abstractions of space and time in the
network society used to organize and interpret
findings
• Key concepts in interpretation:
• Flows of time and space
• Time and space of autonomy

13. Findings and analysis
• Two polar positions of democracy emerge
• Democratic disruption
• Democratic stability

14. Position of democratic disruption
• Speed is the natural way of things – also in
democracy and lawmaking
• Risk management is overblown in the
representative system.
• Power is challenged in spaces for ad-hoc action,
such as social media and civic technology
platforms

15. “The parliament is always more conservative than the
people, and they are now afraid that they let some
power slip to the people.”
A crowdsourcing campaigner for the Equal Marriage
Law

16. “I’m 27 and people of my age are used to doing
things really fast. We like and dislike quickly.”
A crowdsourcing campaigner for the Equal
Marriage Law

17. Position of democratic stability
• Democracy is a mechanism for controlling risks
• Change is managed through institutions and physical
places
• Crowdsourcing feared to be a short cut in the
democratic process
• New technologies are vulnerable to mob rule

18. “...if a group of say five chaps (--) attempt to push things
through as fast as possible – it should raise the question of
how representative are they and what is the societal context at
large.”
MoJ Civil servant

19. Conclusions
• Theoretic foundation for interpretation
• Power-making takes place in networks (Castells)
• Social movements can reprogram power networks
• This happens in space and time of autonomy

20. Crowdsourcing for law:
• is a practice well suited to a time where changes in time
and space are constitutive
• exists in the interaction of spaces of autonomy, places and
flows.
• can help legitimizing democracy among those close to the
position of “democratic disruption”

21. …crowdsourcing…
• allows scaling and circulation of digital civic
innovations and ideas
• complements the lack of spaces for
democratic engagement and participation in
the contemporary representative system

22. Policy implications
• Co-operation between hackers and civil servants
was a success; should be continued and deepened
• A radical legislative framework – a result of ten yrs’
work – was the key for success and important in
future experiments
• Funding for civic tech startups a cause for concern

23. • Thank you for your attention
• I’m a Scholar in Residence, SOC, American
University, DC, and a PhD Student at University of
Jyväskylä, Finland
• Published non-fiction author, journalist and
communication consultant
• I welcome inquiries on co-authoring. My current
research project focus on the Chicago civic tech
ecosystem
• taneli.heikka@gmail.com