On March 11, 2024, the Neely Center, in collaboration with the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion, hosted the Design Solutions Summit 2024 in Washington DC. This event brought together a select group of thought leaders and innovators at the forefront of technology and democracy, focusing on the critical role of design in enhancing online civic discourse. The event was kicked off by a speech from Kathy Boockvar, former Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, who discussed the effect that online discourse can have on elections and included talks by numerous technologists with experience at Google, Facebook, and Instagram, as to potential design-based solutions. Among the participants in the workshop were representatives from Meta, Twitter, Google, USC, Notre Dame, Build Up, Search for Common Ground, Villanova University, the Prosocial Design Network, the National Democratic Institute, Stanford, Reset.Tech, Aspen Institute, the US State Department, Knight Georgetown, the Department of Homeland Security, the American Psychological Association, Athena Strategies, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Protect Democracy, and India Civil Watch International. The event was co-sponsored by the Council of Technology and Social Cohesion and hosted at Search for Common Ground headquarters. Several participants leveraged the Neely Center's design code and election recommendations in their remarks. The convening was productive and resonated with the participants for its relevance. As one attendee noted, “For someone working in the responsible tech field, the summit was an incredible opportunity to learn not just about new design solutions but. almost more importantly, where the field is converging on which design solutions are most powerful.”
Links:
For Neely Center's design code and election recommendations
For Council on Tech and Social Cohesion
For Search for Common Ground