A growing part of the general public is concerned that cities are planned and governed in a responsible way. In the contemporary information society, however, the democratic obligation of the citizens to rigorously inform themselves so that they can participate in public affairs has become impossible to fulfill. Rather than submitting to the opinions of self-proclaimed experts, citizens need new ways to make sense of what is going on around them.
Accountability technologies stand for new innovative approaches to bottom-up governance: technologies to monitor those in power to make sure that they are held accountable for their actions. Accountability technologies are designed to support coordinated data collection, analysis and communication to achieve social change. The past years saw many examples dedicated to this concern: citizen sensing of traffic noise or congestion, pollution; monitoring of mobility infrastructures and urban energy consumption; whistleblowers revealing corruption and misuse of power.

We are interested in such projects and technologies that have succeeded in making an impact on the reality of the city. We are interested in the motivations, strategies and tactics of the people who create and use these technologies. We are also interested in the role of representation – does it make a difference how information is presented? How can data generated by citizens interface with official structures and put into action?

Schedule

10:00 – 10:30

Introduction Dietmar Offenhuber and Katja Schechtner

10:30 – 12:30

Collect. Data from the top-down and bottom-up – reflecting on truth, trust and politics
Jeffery Warren (Founder Public Laboratory / US)
Ina Schieferdecker (Fraunhofer Fokus Zentrum für Smart Cities / DE)
Amber Frid Jimenez (Artist, Professor at the Bergen Academy of the Arts / US/NO)

14:00 – 16:00

Communicate. Data journalism and information activism – communicating data to the public
Michael Kreil (visualization and data journalism expert, Open Data City / DE)
Sami Ben Gharbia (citizen journalist, activist / TN)
Marek Tuszynski (Creative Director, Co-founder Tactical Technology Collective / DE)

16:15 – 18:30

Compel. From data to action – strategies for achieving change in the public sphere
Michel Reimon – (journalist, author, politician / A)
Dieter Zinnbauer – (Senior Program Manager, Transparency International / DE)
Thomas Diez (Director Fablab Barcelona / ES)

19:00

Keynote lecture and Book presentation Inscribing a Square: urban data as public space
Jose-Luis de Vicente (Cultural Investigator, Curator / ES), introduced by Gabriele Kaiser, director AFO.