Institute For The Future

Gov Futures Lab hosts ReConCon

From fiscal cliffhangers and precarious political unions to regulatory capture and endemic corruption, it’s difficult to find almost anyone these days that thinks our governance systems are in good shape. On April 26-27, the Governance Futures Lab at the Institute for the Future (IFTF) hosted social inventors from around the world to tackle some very thorny issues and begin to reinvent the practice of governance for the 21st century.

The ReConstitutional Convention was held simultaneously at IFTF headquarters in Palo Alto and at ten global nodes in countries including Singapore, Myanmar and the UK. The gathering of world-class activists, scholars, government officials and futures thinkers systematically reconsidered the underlying frameworks of governance: How should resources be managed? Who has a voice? How do people make decisions together to secure their individual and collective well-being?

The event brought together a star-studded cast of leading experts in social and political change, including Alissa Black, Jane McGonigal, Chris McKay, Samidh Chakrabarti, Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Sanford Levinson, Micah Sifry, Stephen Duncombe, David Sasaki, James Fishkin, James Dator, and many others. 

Using IFTF’s design toolkit for reinventing governance, they investigated the core challenges that lead many to believe today’s government institutions are failing. They then worked in teams to rethink the foundational frameworks for new governance systems, create new designs for governance, and prototype ways to make governance work. The results of the event will be shared over the coming weeks on the ReConstitutional Convention website.

An example of a prototype is App4Gov, a project of the Governance Futures Lab.  It’s a prototype of a free and open-source tool that allows elected officials to systematically delegate decision-making to constituents through a suite of online participatory democracy tools:

App4Gov Registration Process Users register online and receive a postcard at their address.		How It Works App4Gov users vote regularly on all sorts off issues through direct communications with their elected representatives. Users can delegate their votes to organizations or individuals.