INTRODUCTION

The fourth industrial revolution is fundamentally reshaping the global economy and societies, and we are shifting the way we live, work, and play. How must we respond to these changes, and how can we use the technological advancements of this age to create a new politics?

Building upon the momentum from the ideas in our Facebook group and first meetup, we are hosting our first Politech Hackathon to bring some of the buzzing ideas being discussed to life. We want to bring together people from the political and technology sectors to create a new politics in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. These two communities will be leading the forefront in shaping the future and it only makes sense to be collaborating now.

Over the course of a weekend, participants will ideate and prototype products, services, or platforms to improve politics using tech, data, and political ideas. Want to help change the future of politics to improve the state of the world? Join us.

Our goal: Make politics more inclusive, transparent, open, and diverse, to ensure that it meets its original purpose of bringing people together to address societal problems.

MAIN THEMES

1. Automating political tasks

What tasks of a politician can be automated? For example, could we create technologies which write speeches and/or understand what the public think about particular issues to help create laws? Could ethical decisions be informed by machine-learning?

Technology to inspire you

• MIT’s Moral Machine: http://qz.com/759298/mit-wants-humans-input-on-who-self-driving-cars-should-kill/.
• Stanford’s work teaching human ethics to automated cars: http://news.stanford.edu/2016/08/01/teach-autonomous-cars-drive-like-humans/.
• Machine-learning which wrote new Shakespearean sonnets: https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/26/swift-speare/.
• The computer programme taught to write new episodes of Friends: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/12110804/Man-teaches-computer-program-to-write-new-episodes-of-Friends.html.

2. Creating a new political institution

How can we create a new type of political institution using the technology available to us? The purpose of this political institution would be to bring together a global group of people who work together to tackle global issues which national governments cannot. At different points in history, the idea of the 'political party' was born, then the ideas of the European Union and United Nations were also born. What is the next evolution of these political institutions?

3. Developing a more transparent and accountable political system

How might politicians be held accountable for their claims? How might the process of policymaking, voting, and campaigning be more accountable? Could we create Augmented Reality technology which informs the user whether or not a politician is telling the truth or not?

Technology to inspire you

• Live instant fact checker by CNN: http://mashable.com/2016/06/02/cnn-fact-checks-trump-chyron/.

4. Understanding the public’s political views

What sort of legislation does the public want political systems to introduce or reform? How can we make the political process more inclusive of a large and diverse group of people, rather than just those who vote? These insights can be used to improve governance worldwide.

REGISTRATION

In order to ensure we can form well-balanced product teams, we ask that you register according to the category that you have skillset in.

Developer - You are a software developer. We will have some datasets and APIs available for you to use closer to the date.

Designer - You can mock up digital designs, basic webpages, and/or help with design thinking processes.

Ideator - You have bold ideas on how to create a new forward-thinking politics.

Tickets are £5 online before the weekend, and £8 on the door.

AGENDA

Saturday 3rd September

9:00-10:00

Arrive + register

10:00-10:05

Introduction to the Fourth Group (Alvin Carpio)

Who we are, what we do, why we decided to run a Politech Hackathon

10:05-10:20

Overview of the Politech Hackathon (Leah Bae et al)

What’s the weekend’s agenda, expectations, challenges

10:20-10:30

Ice-breaker

10:30-11:00

Panel Discussion

How can we use technology to create a new politics in the context of the fourth industrial revolution?

Rapi Castillo, Founder and Executive Director of Progressive Coders Network

Kat Hanna, Centre for London lead of the Transatlantic Innovation Districts Partnership

Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social media (CASM) at Demos

[Others speakers to be announced soon]

11:00-11:15

Q&A

11:15-11:30

Break + mingle

Start thinking about ideas

11:30-13:00

Ideation session

Pitch ideas and form teams

13:00-13:45

Lunch

13:45-16:00

Solidify teams + hacks

16:00-16:15

Check-in

16:15 till late

Hack

Sunday 4^th September

10:00

Start

13:00-13:45

Lunch

13:45-15:15

Finalise pitches

15:15-15:30

Judges speak

Matt Clifford, Co-founder and Chief Executive, Entrepreneur First

[Other judges to be announced soon]

15:30-16:15

5-minute pitches

16:15-16:30

Judges deliberate

16:30

Prizes

17:00

End

CONTACT

If you have any questions of if you'd like further information, email us: join@fourth.group.