On June 28, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings convened a discussion forum focused on using social networking and digital tools to reinvigorate democracy and extend electronic engagement from campaigns and grassroots-activism to governance. Participants discussed strategies for voter empowerment, citizen engagement, and governance transformation. Questions examined included: What tools does government use to engage the American people, and how have these engagement strategies evolved? How does social networking improve participation and collaboration in governance? What does current research say? What role should industry actors such as Facebook and Twitter play in encouraging online civic participation?
You can watch a video of the discussion, in which Pew Internet director Lee Rainie presents findings from our recent report on technology and social networks, and download the [uncorrected] transcript provided by Brookings.
