The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that 543 terabits of data are flowing across borders every second. If knowledge is power and data is now the most valuable commodity on the planet, who has it? Who uses it? Who controls it? How? And where does government fit into this datascape? Do governments have any power or purpose left, or, like one of those old Western towns that are only facades, are we living in a facsimile of civic governance?

1. Does government matter in a
digital world?
Civics, tech and ethics collide in a contested and contestable world

2. Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson
or
Ralph Nader

3. Data keeps growing
www.domo.com

4. Who has the data?
The most accessed government website
versus Amazon.com
The most accessed government website
versus Kim Kardashian
www.google.com

5. And we've become very doubtful of our information sources, because they're all
controlled by these huge multilateral corporations.
Brian De Palma

6. There is a confidence gap

7. People are leaving trails everywhere they go; automated web crawlers tell you an
awful lot about their social activities. The flow of information in fundamentally
unobtrusive ways into social control organizations has risen dramatically.
Whitfield Diffie

8. Convenience substitutes for informed
consent
Terms and conditions
Legalese
In perpetuity
Not negotiable
Third parties
Subject to change at the
vendor’s pleasure
Inadequate revocation
rights
Data collection as a ‘cost of
entry’
The story is bigger than
the data
AI black boxes

9. In a perfect world, we would have put users in control of their information when
the Internet was first created.
Adam Cohen

10. GDPR v The rest of the world

11. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
and
The road to hell is paved with good intentions

12. Governments as owners(?) of data
Monopoly services
Implied consent
In perpetuity
Not negotiable
To commercialise or not to
commercialise?
Subject to change at the
government’s pleasure
Inadequate revocation
rights
Data collection as a ‘cost of
entry’
Big brother and your story
AI black boxes

13. The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we
the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of
the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.
Rebecca MacKinnon

14. Governments as regulators
Public safety and security
Level playing fields
Keeping up with change
Low trust
Stifling innovation
Market interferences
Has the horse bolted?
Low accountability

15. The care of human life and happiness…is the first and only object of good
government.
Thomas Jefferson
Good government is one of the most important factors in economic growth and
social well-being.
Joe Lonsdale

16. Can governments catch up to the digital
age?
New roles
New service models
Ethics v regulation
New social contract(s) New economic model(s)
Existential threats
What is measured is treasured
Treating the cause,
investing in preventionEvidence v Common sense
Open experimentation, iteration
Perfect v Good enough
Complex v Complicated
Liquid democracy
https://playingbackyourdream.com/how-does-dream-work-create-the-world-in-which-we-want-to-live/

17. It's up to us to create the world we want to live in - we all have the power to do
so if we set our minds to it.
Richard Branson