Digital Public designs and supports public participation in governing digital transformation.
Our Story
Digital Public started in 2016, with a focus on designing, developing, and implementing infrastructure to enable communities to govern the technologies shaping their lives.
Our work began with a focus on the use of legal tools, like fiduciary duties and trusts, to articulate and realize digital rights. We have worked to help establish positive digital ecosystems and organized rightsholder communities to mitigate and resist the imposition of toxic digital transformations.
After years of advocacy, advisory, and research consulting - we learned (at least) 2 things about successful public interest digital governance work: (1) the whack-a-mole problem: public organizing isn’t resulting in systemic change of the status quo and our institutions aren’t learning from the public’s experience of digital transformation; and (2) many of the most important digital governance decisions get made, in passing, by the professionals who are already in positions of power in the places technology gets used.
Our approach has been to develop and begin piloting The Digital Governance Design Clinic - a model for engaging emerging, duty bearing professionals in leading the digital transformation of their fields through capacity building, applied experience, and the institutions that set professional standards of practice.
Staff
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Bianca Wylie is a writer and public advocate with a dual background in technology and public engagement. She is a partner at Digital Public, where she works on public interest technology governance, with a specific focus on public engagement. Bianca worked for several years in the tech sector in operations, infrastructure, corporate training, and product management. Then, as a professional facilitator, she spent several years co-designing, delivering and supporting public consultation processes for various governments and government agencies. She founded the Open Data Institute Toronto in 2014, co-founded Civic Tech Toronto in 2015, and co-founded Tech Reset Canada in 2018.
Bianca’s writing has been published in a range of publications including: Boston Review, VICE, The Globe and Mail, and Toronto Life. She has given guest lectures at Harvard Law School, MIT’s Urban Planning school, and Queen's University's School of Computing, among others. Bianca is a frequent speaker and panelist at technology and urban planning conferences, and provides regular testimony at both federal
committees and Toronto City Hall on matters of technology policy. She is currently a member of the advisory boards for the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) and The Computational Democracy Project. She is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Bianca’s work has been profiled in The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Le Monde.
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Sean McDonald builds governance for technology and technology for governance. Sean is the co-founder of Digital Public, where he focuses on data governance design. He is a lawyer and the former CEO of FrontlineSMS, an award-winning public interest technology company. Sean is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation.
Sean is also a researcher and writer whose work has been published by the Review of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Brookings Institution, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Foreign Policy, VoxPopLii, The New Humanitarian, the Center for Internet & Society, among others. Sean is an advisor to a number of civil society organizations, as well as data governance research projects at Tilburg University and the University of Oslo. Sean was formerly a Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab, a Hivos Digital and Creative Futures Fellow, a Research Fellow at Duke’s Center for Law and Technology, an Affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center. He holds a JD/MA from American University, with specializations in international law and alternative dispute resolution.
Digital Governance Design Clinic Fellows
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Alec Bacon is currently building his legal career at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Graduating his undergraduate summa cum laude with a BS in Mass Communication, Alec hopes to use his legal knowledge to promote justice and advocate for policy that helps make communities more fair and sustainable places. Alec has previously worked in education-technology and political research, studying gerrymandering and its consequences. Alec is excited to have joined the Digital Public team to help study the impact of emerging technology and how it interacts with the societal systems that impact all Americans. In his spare time, Alec has a passion for adventure and enjoying the outdoors to its fullest. Currently triathlon training for the Arizona IronMan, Alec also enjoys hiking new trails and reading books on different areas of policy (and often a good Stephen King thriller).
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Danny Glauber is currently attending Arizona State University in pursuit of a JD after graduating summa cum laude with a BS in Political Science. Danny has worked in social services as a family support specialist as well as an advocate in the political arena. Danny has a passion for civic engagement and community outreach. Danny is excited to have joined the Digital Public fellowship and to work on creating fair and just systems for digital governance. In his free time, Danny can be found practicing the piano, trying out new recipes, or tending to his garden.
Join Us
Open Positions
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