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Forum Offene Stadt 2020 | Bianca Wylie The Democratic Challenge of Technology

  • 19 min.

On November 6, 2020, the Körber-Stiftung and Code for Germany, a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, jointly hosted the fourth Forum Offene Stadt conference - this time as a digital event. Around 430 technology enthusiasts from public administration, politics, civil society, business and science followed the keynote, panel discussions and book presentation in the live stream.This year, the conference focused on the question of how the city of the future can be shaped in a participatory, digital and sustainable way. In the context of current challenges such as the corona and climate crisis, the focus was particularly on the participation of citizens, the needs and hurdles faced by city administrations in implementing Open Data and Open Government, and the resilience of cities to crises. The digital conference was opened by Bianca Wylie, the founder of the Open Data Institute Toronto, with a keynote on "The Democratic Challenge of Technology: Growing Politics of Collective Care in Our Cities". Wylie emphasized that Open Data and transparency are not enough. The current challenge is to communicate even more openly and clearly how decisions are made in administrations, because “Democracy is built on accountability; democracy is built on explaining how decisions are made.” This must be accompanied by a focus on the interaction between the state, the private sector and the public. Rules, values and norms must be redefined.