Community Call: Deliberative & Democratic Tech hosted by Metagov x CrownShy (#3)
These calls will bring together people working on deliberative and digital democracy including researchers, practitioners, technology builders, academics, policymakers, and more. Our goal is to create a shared, professional space for folks to strengthen ties, cross-pollinate ideas, and reflect on how democratic infrastructure is being shaped in the real world.
What to Expect from this Series:
Featured presentations from practitioners, developers, and researchers
Open discussion through Q&A and breakout conversations
Community shout-outs - a space to share projects, ask for help, and find collaborators
A professional community focused on tangible insights and genuine connections
Duration: Each call lasts 75 minutes
Access: Free and open to the community
Recording: Sessions will be recorded and shared on the CrownShy and Metagov YouTube channels.
Our Third Community Call - Tuesday, April 28th
Topic: From Participation to Policy: Navigating the Thorny Questions of Institutional Buy-In
In our first call, we mapped the technical terrain of interoperability between digital deliberative tools. In our second, we heard about the inspiring case studies shared by Jennifer Chace PhD, who shared reflections from her work supporting tech-enhanced participatory processes in education.
Now, we turn our gaze toward government and the seat of power.
Participatory democracy processes, whether digital or held in person, are often as powerful as the institutions willing to listen. This third call dives deep into the "thorny questions" of institutional buy-in.
We will move beyond theory to examine where these efforts have successfully translated into genuine policy change, and discuss the formidable obstacles that still stand in the way.
What to Expect: We are thrilled to host a "Fishbowl" panel featuring guests with hands-on experience across diverse governmental landscapes, including Taiwan, Scotland, the USA, and beyond.
Together, we will unpack:
Success Stories: Where have real examples emerged that others can follow?
The Friction Points: What are the specific barriers to implementation when citizens meet bureaucracy? Agency: What can citizens actually do to catalyze change within these systems?
More about this Series:
The series is hosted by CrownShy and Metagov.
Crownshy is a U.K. and U.S. based team of recognized leaders in the domains of deliberative democracy dedicated to providing democratic tools and methods for communities of all shapes and sizes.
Metagov is a laboratory for digital governance cultivating tools, practices, and communities that enable self-governance in the digital age.
In the spirit of open-source innovation, these are free, community-first calls designed to support learning, collaboration, and critical thinking across disciplines, with a focus on how tools, platforms, and design choices affect power, inclusion, trust, and long-term democratic capacity.
We aim to:
Strengthen connections across the field, rather than within silos
Encourage collaboration and shared learning
Surface and showcase open-source tools and approaches
Support innovation and critical reflection on how democratic systems are designed and governed
Rather than focusing only on highly specialized technical or theoretical questions, the series is designed as a bridging forum - a place where people working in different domains can translate across disciplines, surface assumptions, and learn from each other’s constraints and priorities.
Who Is This For?
This series is for people working in, across, or between the following domains:
Practitioners & facilitators designing and running in-person deliberative processes
Developers & builders creating digital democracy platforms and tools
Researchers & academics studying, evaluating, and theorising democratic innovation
If you are working in any capacity to make online and offline public discourse and collective decision-making more thoughtful, inclusive, and impactful, this community is for you!