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of the most intractable problems facing our democracy today, such as how to get Congress back on track as an institution representative of the American polity as a whole.” Unlike traditional hackathons, which tend to be tech-centric gatherings revolving around computer programming, McKinley and the Ash Center envisioned #Hack4Congress as bridging the gap between technologists and public policy. “It was very important that #Hack4Congress encompass innovations beyond the technology sector,” said McKinley. “Academics, policy specialists, lawyers—they all have tremendous insight into how to tackle congressional dysfunction. #Hack4Congress wasn’t solely a technological challenge, which is what made it such a compelling event.” Seamus Kraft, the executive director of the OpenGov Foundation and a former congressional staffer himself, worked closely with the Ash Center to help make #Hack4Congress a reality. “Most hackathons focus on straight coding— straight applications—they don’t focus on the softer human side,” said Kraft. “People who are attending #hack4Congress come from a vast array of interests and backgrounds—designers, developers, political scientists, people who work or used to work in government—you name it.” In fact, nearly half of the approximately 150 participants at #Hack4Congress did not hail from traditional technology backgrounds. Brandon Andrews, a former defense policy staffer for Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who now works for a Washington-based public relations firm, traveled up from the nation’s capital to participate in #Hack4Congress. Andrews’ team, the “Dear Colleagues,” one of 13 competing in the event, concentrated their efforts on improving the functionality and increasing the transparency of dear colleague letters, which are in essence interoffice memoranda on Capitol Hill and constitute the bulk of formal correspondence between members of Congress. “While I was on the Hill, members of Congress would send dear colleague letters soliciting congressional support or opposition to a variety of executive branch activities—and even those of private corporations,” said Andrews. “Since legislation is increasingly difficult to pass, a lot of work is being done with these letters.” With legislative output plummeting in recent years, letters from Congress have in many ways supplanted legislation as one of the primary vehicles through which Capitol Hill expresses or tries to influence nearly every aspect of government operation. "We are committed to providing resources to our students and the broader policy community to help tackle some of the most intractable problems facing our democracy today." Tony Saich, Ash Center Director The problem, Andrews explains, is that unlike actual bills and amendments, these sorts of letters rarely make it into the hands of the public; nor are there any institutional methods for capturing or otherwise archiving what has become an important part of the work of Congress. Team Dear Colleagues’ solution didn’t employ lines of code and slick graphics, but was as simple as creating a Google group to store dear colleague records for the public. The failure of Congress to better embrace technological innovation, nonetheless, weighed on the mind of many at #Hack4Congress. Tomas Insua, a master in public policy student and research assistant at the Ash Center, came to the Kennedy School with a tech background having previously worked at Google. For Insua, this failure to embrace technology is exacerbating our democratic deficit. “We’re living in the 21st century, but our democratic institutions function exactly the same as they did 200 years ago. Technology has revolutionized everything—be it the economy, media, education—yet our democratic system remains unchanged,” said Insua. “I think this explains the really low levels of trust in our political system. As a result constituents aren’t engaged and don’t feel represented by our political system.” 8 <strong>Communiqué</strong> Spring 2015 www.ash.harvard.edu
Much of this breakdown, argues Kraft, can be attributed to time, transparency, and technology. “Members of Congress, their staffs, and constituents—everyone are leading very busy lives,” said Kraft. “Even engaged citizens don’t have enough time.” William Delahunt, a retired Democratic Congressman who represented much of the South Shore of Massachusetts and the Cape in the House of Representatives for nearly a decade and a half before retiring in 2010, echoed Kraft’s sentiments. “My life was scheduled in fifteen-minute increments,” said Delahunt. “There was no time to stop and think about the issues.” “I wanted to participate in the hackathon because I'm both interested and hopeful about the potential of technology to reinvigorate American democracy by recuperating citizen participation and citizen empowerment. I think real citizen power in our democracy is low, and technology presents a lot of opportunities to address that problem.” Jessie Landerman, MPP ’15 TOP Team working on their solution at #Hack4Congress ABOVE Academic Dean Archon Fung, Senior Lecturer David King, Climenko Fellow and HLS Lecturer Maggie McKinley, and Bill Delahunt, former US Representative (D-MA) at the #Hack4Congress opening panel BELOW Members of the #Hack4Congress winning team, "HillHack": Taylor Woods MPP '15, Chris Baily, Kat Kane MPP '15, and Jessie Landerman MPP '15 Participating in a panel discussion to kick off #Hack4Congress, Delahunt tried to dispel the impression that members of Congress live the high life in Washington, “I slept on a cot in a living room of a shared house.” While the thought of Congressmen sleeping on cots may be enough to combat notions of lavish and carefree congressional lifestyles for even the most hardened critic of the legislative branch, the fact remains that constituents feel far removed from the daily machinations of Capitol Hill. Jessie Landerman, an HKS master in public policy student saw an opportunity to bridge this gap by helping to develop a new platform that allows constituents to better engage with congressional offices. “I wanted to participate in the hackathon because I'm both interested and hopeful about the potential of technology to reinvigorate American democracy by recuperating citizen participation and citizen empowerment. I think real citizen power in our democracy is low, and technology presents a lot of opportunities to address that problem.” Landerman’s #Hack4Congress team designed “Congress Connect” as a platform for strengthening the direct connection between constituents and Congress. She envisions Congress Connect as a resource to allow constituents to better schedule meetings with congressional offices as well as prepping those same constituents to ensure that their message is communicated effectively. “By increasing the quality and quantity of in-person meetings between Congressional representatives and their constituents, we can increase citizen voice and citizen power, and counterbalance the growing power of lobbyists who, at times, represent private interests rather than public ones,” said Landerman. For her efforts, Landerman and her teammates were named the overall winners of #Hack4Congress in Cambridge and were awarded with a trip to Congress to present their proposal. The team will be joined on Capitol Hill later this year along with the winners of separate #Hack4Congress events the Ash Center is holding in San Francisco and Washington. On the Hill, the Ash Center will be convening a panel of members of Congress and senior congressional technology staffers to review and give feedback to the winners of the Cambridge, San Francisco, and Washington hackathons. “After getting feedback from Congress about how best to design and implement the tool, we hope to pull together seed money to pilot it either for select Congressional offices or at the state or local level,” said Landerman. For the Ash Center and the Kennedy School, “the longer term picture is to create many opportunities for all kinds of Americans from all walks of life to actively contribute to this project of improving American democracy,” said Fung. For more information, visit hack4congress.org. C www.ash.harvard.edu Spring 2015 <strong>Communiqué</strong> 9
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Page 5 and 6: IN THE NEWS Ash Center Faculty Appo
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