Power & Privacy: What Superheroes Can Teach Us

#sxsw #PrvcyPower

Iap23604

Mobile computing and open government are bringing more people into government than ever before. As government managers develop requirements for app developers to create the tools that citizens will use to participate in government, they need to offer participants the right level of privacy so that they will feel comfortable participating, but not so much that people can abuse the system and others lose trust in it.
There are three interesting models of privacy that are embodied by Superheroes: Authenticated Identity (Tony Stark/Iron Man); Persistent Pseudonymity (Peter Parker/Spiderman and Clark Kent/Superman) and Anonymity (Bruce Wayne/Batman). I'll illustrate how each of these are already being used in civic apps and talk about what individuals should expect, government managers should require, and app developers should encode in terms of privacy and power from new citizen engagement tools.

Presenters

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

Innovation & Social Media Dir

IBM Center for the Business of Government

Gadi Ben-Yehuda is the Director of Innovation and Social Media for The Center for the Business of Government. He speaks and writes extensively, delivering presentations all over the US and internationally. His articles have appeared online and in print in publications ranging from Huffington Post to GovExec to Financier Worldwide to American Spirit, the magazine of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mr. Ben-Yehuda has worked on the Web since 1994, when he received an email from Maya Angelou through his first Web site. He has an MFA in poetry from American University, has taught writing at Howard University, and has worked in Washington, DC, for nonprofits, lobbying organizations, Fleishman-Hillard Global Communications, and Al Gore's presidential campaign.

Prior to his current position, Gadi was was a Web Strategist for the District of Columbia's Office of the chief Technology Officer (OCTO). Additionally, Gadi has taught creative, expository, and Web writing for more than 10 years to university students, private-sector professionals, and soldiers, including Marines at the Barracks at 8th and I in Washington, DC. (The lattermost by far the most disciplined.)