The second of the key elements for building better democratic practices that I mentioned last time is to improve the local information ecosystem.
It's tempting to immediately start coming up with ideas for creating or changing the tools and resources available to the community in order to "solve" the problem of a current inadequate information ecosystem. We'll definitely get to that, but it’s not the place to start.
The fact is, the issue is not simply a lack of information or tools. Often those are available and yet people still don't make good use of them.
It brings to mind a guy I met while greeting at one of the polling places on election day this year, who said something like, "I know it's bad, but I don't start researching candidates until I'm in there." I heard similar stories from other poll greeters. It's not that these folks think what they're doing is fine, but somehow it's the best they can manage.
I don't mean that facetiously. A sponsor I had in AA used to say that we all do the best we can at all times, given our personal context. Sometimes that "best" is objectively quite poor, but it's not helpful to berate ourselves or others about it. What helps is to change where we're making our choices from and the narratives we lean on to guide us. As philosopher Báyò Akómoláfe noted in this interview: “Knowing what to do isn’t quite the same as being in the kinds of place to do them.”
People like the guy at the polls actually give me hope. He wants to participate in democratic society, believes it's important. We can work with that. But if we want an information ecosystem that enables people to participate effectively in democratic decision-making processes, we have to attend to what's needed to transform both the information tools available and the context from which people use them.
In other words, we can't separate building community and building an information ecosystem that can serve it.
I have begun to think about this work as consisting of two complementary efforts, one operating from the inside out and another outside in. I'll start with the second since it's a bit more familiar.
Working Outside In
The outside-in effort involves identifying or creating information and accountability mechanisms that can be used by the community. Much of this already exists in some form.
For example, we have a relatively robust local media ecosystem centered in Asheville, some local, some more regional or statewide. Local governments also regularly report on what they're doing and (far less consistently) what the impact is. These range from minutes and recordings of public meetings to reports and studies to open data and transparency sites.
There are also myriad efforts by community organizations like the United Way's education data dashboard or Thrive Asheville's topical reports or specialized efforts like the Government Accountability Project (GAP AVL) And of course there are rich state and national sources of locally relevant data, from comprehensive resources like the US Census to specialized data like the NC Measuring Justice Dashboard or the City Health Dashboard.
While there are certainly gaps in the information available, it's not obvious that that is the primary problem. To me the bigger issue is that people face an overwhelming amount of information scattered across a large number of locations and formats, often requiring nontrivial expertise to use. News media curate a small subset of that information in ways that can be helpful, but just as well may not serve the actual information needs of a particular community.
There is certainly a place for some kinds of tools and resources here. A few seem obvious to me:
A coherent way to track how our community is doing and what impacts programs and initiatives have on the community as a whole (including an ability to break that down as much as possible by geography, race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.). This is the people-centered community indicator framework that I've discussed before.
Tools to help both communities and other information providers track particular issues within the flood of information, particularly from governments. GAP AVL is one example along these lines, focused on racial equity.
Bridging organizations that can connect the larger information ecosystem to the needs of particular communities. We saw examples within better organized communities after the storm: the East End/Valley Street neighborhood distributing daily printed bulletins or a daily robocall in Shiloh. JM PRO Community Media seems to be another example. Such bridge organizations are likely to be conduits for general-purpose media and resources and so can also serve as important sources of information about what's actually needed and how best to deliver it.
Experts in domains like development, affordable housing, healthcare and more who are able to make themselves available for use by communities and so even the playing field in discussions of public policy.
I am sure there are other gaps to be filled and ideas for filling them and I would love to hear your thoughts on them.
But again, having sources of information, even ones better matched to the needs of communities, is only one piece of what's needed; arguably, not even the most important part. The larger question is how communities can equip themselves to make use of information and resources to advocate for their own needs and to hold those in power accountable.
I'll dig into that one in another post next.
This is the second in a 3-article mini-series:
Moving Beyond Defense: Two key elements for building a better future
Building the Local Information Ecosystem: Thinking outside-in and inside-out (this article)
Accountability From the Inside Out: Creating publics of accountability
Links & Thoughts
The times are urgent; let us slow down. It’s easy for both individuals and organizations to fall into a pattern of constant reaction to circumstances. You're barely through one crisis when the next one hits and you never have time to do any of the work to prevent or be better prepared for the next one (or, dare I say it, to avoid causing the next one). This essay, A Slower Urgency by Báyò Akómoláfe reflects on why we might consider responding differently.
Impact Inversion. Really interesting article on the problematic way we think about "impact" in interventions. We imagine "society as a target which passively absorbs impact rather than impact as something which emerges between the interaction of individual constituents within society and the technologies that are introduced to them." There are consequences to only focusing on the chain at the expense of the tangle.
If you want to share thoughts on anything I’ve said here or have ideas about further questions or topics you’d like me to explore, please feel free to reply to the newsletter email or contact me here.