Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172, 45 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20515
**Please note, the room for this event has changed. The event will be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building**
Join us in Washington, DC for a special lunch conversation on redistricting reform featuring members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, the winner of this year's Roy and Lila Ash Innovations Award for Public Engagement in Government. The event will feature remarks by Professor Archon Fung of Harvard Kennedy School and Michael Li, Senior Counsel at the Brennan
Join public officials from cities, towns, and state agencies across Massachusetts for a nuts and bolts conversation on fostering innovation in government. Participants will join the nine finalists for Harvard University's Innovations in American Government Award for an exchange of ideas and experiences on transforming how we address our toughest public problems. The small group discussions will focus on novel yet practical solutions as well as implementation: how to get good ideas started, how to tackle the bureaucratic hurdles, where and how to leverage funding and support, and more. Read more about Sparking Change: Symposium on Public Sector Innovation
Hundreds of civic hackers, technologists, policy wonks, engaged citizens, and others have come together at three #Hack4Congress events across the country to send a simple message to Congress: it’s time to bring government into the 21st century, and we’re here to help.
With our co-organizer The OpenGov Foundation, the Ash Center now invites you to one more #Hack4Congress event. Meet and support the winners from #Hack4Congress Cambridge ('Congress Connect'),
Google, 25 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest #900, Washington, DC 20001
#Hack4Congress brings together political scientists, technologists, designers, lawyers, organizational psychologists, and lawmakers to foster new digital tools, policy proposals and other innovations to address the growing dysfunction in Congress.
In three “not-just-for-technologists” events (in Cambridge, San Francisco, and Washington DC), civic innovators are invited to spend a weekend working on “hacks” (both technical and non-technical) to improve Congress. Each event concludes with presentations and the selection of the best project.
Winners will travel to DC in May to present their ideas to a panel of Members of Congress and civic innovators.
The event will kick off on April 29 at 5:30pm with a panel discussion entitled “Creating a 21st Century Congress” at the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center. See the Reddit AMA with the speakers here.
Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Featuring:
John Gastil, Professor and Head, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State University Jon Hecht, MA State Representative (D-Watertown) Tyrone Reitman, Executive Director, Healthy Democracy Oregon Carmen Sirianni (moderator), Morris Hillquit Professor of Labor and Social Thought, Brandeis University
About the event:
Join academics and practitioners in a panel discussion on the Citizens’ Initiative Review, an innovative approach to direct democracy through ballot initiatives.
More than 70% of the people in the US live in a state or city where direct democracy is available. In 2014, Americans in 42 states voted on altogether 158 ballot measures. Topics featured in these ballots included burning questions such as the minimum wage, criminal justice, guns, immigration and insurance. As an effect of citizens’ participation in these ballots, four states for example raised the minimum wages from the beginning of this year. Europe, on the other hand, awaited for the result of the Scottish independence referendum with fear and excitement in 2014. However, the complexity of current policy issues and investments of large interest organizations in referendum campaigns have raised concerns about the functioning of direct democracy. Read more about Getting to Yes (or No): Making Ballot Initiatives More Voter-Friendly and Deliberative
Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn St, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy Artur Davis, Former U.S. Representative and current Republican candidate for Mayor of Montgomery, AL Lisa McGirr, Respondent, Professor of History, Harvard University Alex Keyssar, Moderator, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy
Co-sponsored by the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, The Harvard Journal of African American Policy and the HKS Black Student Union.
About the Event
Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor of Public Policy Leah Wright Rigueur, Former U.S. Representative Artur Davis and Harvard University Professor of History Lisa McGirr will discuss Professor Wright Rigueur’s new book, The Loneliness of the Black Republican in an event moderated by Alex Keyssar, HKS Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy. Covering more than four decades of American social and political history, The Loneliness of the Black Republican examines the ideas and actions of black Republican activists, officials, and politicians, from the era of the New Deal to Ronald Reagan’s presidential ascent in 1980. Read more about The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power
Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn St, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Maya Sen (Moderator), Ash Center Faculty Affiliate and HKS Assistant Professor of Public Policy Stephen Ansolabehere, Professor of Government, Harvard University Nate Cohn, Politics and Policy Writer, The New York Times Bernard Fraga, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University
How has the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which upended a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and opened the door to states and local jurisdictions to rewrite voting laws, impacted voter registration and turnout? Our panel of academics and journalists will discuss the potential effects of Shelby County on American voting rights. Read more about How Data is Helping Us Understand Voting Rights After Shelby County
Code for America, 155 9th Street, San Francisco CA, 94103
Organized with the OpenGov Foundation and POPVOX
#Hack4Congress is a multi-city event that brings together political scientists, technologists, designers, lawyers, organizational psychologists, and lawmakers to foster new digital tools, policy proposals and other innovations to address the growing dysfunction in Congress. Read more about #Hack4Congress San Francisco
SPUR Urban Center, 654 Mission St, San Francisco CA, 94105
Current and former members of Congress and Bay Area technologists address the prospects for solving congressional dysfunction
Co-organized with the HKS Alumni Network of San Francisco, the OpenGov Foundation and POPVOX
The Ash Center and the HKS Alumni Network of San Francisco invite you to a kickoff panel for the San Francisco #Hack4Congress “Not Just for Technologists” hackathon. The panel will address key structural problems that undermine the efficacy of Congress and explore solutions for improving the lawmaking process in addition to better to facilitating cross-partisan dialogue, and modernizing congressional participation. Panelists will also discuss the prospects and strategies for integrating technology into the operations of Congress today. Read more about ’Fixing Congress’ Panel Discussion and Reception
Join public officials from cities, towns, and state agencies across Massachusetts for a nuts and bolts conversation on fostering innovation in government. Participants will join the nine finalists for Harvard University's 
#Hack4Congress brings together political scientists, technologists, designers, lawyers, organizational psychologists, and lawmakers to foster new digital tools, policy proposals and other innovations to address the growing dysfunction in Congress.
Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Maya Sen (Moderator), Ash Center Faculty Affiliate and HKS Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Organized with the OpenGov Foundation and POPVOX
Current and former members of Congress and Bay Area technologists address the prospects for solving congressional dysfunction