Prototyping Policy Workshop

How can we take our shared methods and strategies, and begin to apply them to policy challenges? On the second (optional) day of the summit, there will be a problem-solving workshop in which we scope out more human-centered agile ways to solve five big challenges.

Our organizing committee worked with organizations’ proposals to scope several Policy Challenge statements, that relate to systemic, meaningful opportunities for policy improvements.

Participants will work in small teams, combining their expertise as entrepreneurs, business leaders, policymakers, lawyers, and designers. They will build on the first day’s explorations of new methods and insights, to begin work on the proposed challenges. Each team will begin crafting a prototype and testing-driven policymaking plan, that can spark momentum for the project.

Some of the challenges we will workshop:

1. What could be a new system to regulate the legal profession? With advances in technology, increasing numbers of self-represented litigants, and an access to justice crisis — could we prototype and test new models of regulating lawyers, legal information, and legal advice?
2. What would a more accessible and inclusive entrepreneurship system be — especially that harnesses new data and emerging tech?  If we started from scratch, what system would we create to support people to start small businesses? And how can we harness the new data streams and smart city work to create new business types and ways of working? This theme will touch on the future of work; the regulation of businesses, tech, and entrepreneurship; and public-private partnerships.
3. How could we communicate data transparency to people in more meaningful ways? If privacy policies and cookie notices aren’t effectively helping people understand how their data is being used, what could a new system for user trust and control of their data be. Could there be a way to communicate over a longer period (rather than a single moment), or with multiple interconnected services (rather than each company repeating the same information)?
4. How can emerging technology be used to advance diplomacy and human rights, and how can they be regulated to be ethical and human-centered? AI, blockchain, and other new technologies have begun to show their ability to transform how we communicate and work. How can governments and civil society create policies that are responsive, that abide by human rights and ethical norms, and that harness these new powers?