Gov 2 Summit – Clay Shirky

Telling story about LA Times, Apps for Democracy, and Fines….

LA Times had no space to adapt.

Apps for Democracy. Understood motive of hackers. Encourage and support motives. Didn’t take credit until after apps were done.

Contract to users has to be complete but not too complete.

Users are motivated to do things you will not predict. Have to give space to participate. Otherwise feel like minimum-wage employees who aren’t even getting minimum wage.

The more credit you take in advance, the less likely it will succeed.

Tech is not hard. Hard organizationally. Users never do what designers want or expect. And that’s if it is success. Successful apps create surprises. You are doing it because of possiblity of surprise.

Contract that invites the user end. And that means surprise.

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