CLOSED - Call for partnerships: Feedback on public engagement materials on political influence and personal data (June-July 2021)

This call is now closed.

Tactical Tech is seeking international partners to co-develop public engagement materials on the topic of how political groups use technology and personal data to influence political opinion, election turnout and democratic processes.

Data-driven technologies are increasingly integral to how politics is carried out around the world and consequently impact what news people receive, who has control over information during elections, and what channels the public can use to access political processes.

To participate effectively in the political system, people need access to information about how these data-driven tools work and how politicians use our personal data. The public can increase their agency over their reactions to political content and make more informed political decisions, as well as ask meaningful and critical questions when they engage with politics and hold political groups and the companies they work with to account.

The Data and Politics team at Tactical Tech has already conducted in-depth research on the topic of how data-driven technologies are used in political influence, as well as developed substantial resource materials for specialists, researchers, or academics.

Now, Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics team aims to create materials and activities to engage the public with the topics of personal data, technology, democracy, influence, misinformation, and political participation. We wish to work alongside organisations that support public and political information, education, and campaigns to produce creative and educational materials that answer questions such as:

How are data-driven technologies impacting political processes? Who manages the information we find on online technologies such as Facebook and Twitter? How is voters' data used to give political parties advantages in election campaigns?

This will be a short-term partnership for up to two months. The partner organisation’s role will be twofold: attend a collaborative workshop to feedback and design concepts for the materials and then to gain feedback from their audience on the content and format for the materials.

Workshop: half-day online workshop in the week commencing Approx. 22nd/23rd-25th June (time depending on availability and timezones)

Testing with local audiences and providing collated feedback to Tactical Tech: Approx. end of July 2021

This partnership call is specifically for partners who will help test initial content and develop ideas for new content. There may be opportunities for further work after the first phase.

Partnership criteria

  • We are open to working with a variety of civil society organisations, institutes or networks. For example, you could be a library, a human rights organisation, a youth group, or a public education program.
  • The organisation should have experience in public engagement programmes or projects.
  • Applicants can be based anywhere and we particularly encourage applications from educators and organisers based in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
  • The partnership collaboration and coordination will be in English, so confidence in communicating in English is important.
  • The partner organisation will be committed to the work, attending the workshop, and meeting the July deadline.
  • Tactical Tech will provide the core content
  • Tactical Tech can provide up to 1000 euros for costs occurred. Applicants must detail how the money will be used in the application round. This will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on the feasibility of time frame and workshops during the COVID-19 restrictions. As this amount may not cover all of the costs associated with being a partner, we’re looking for partners who will not rely on this partnership as a sole source of funding and who have the resources and capacity to carry out the work.
  • The organisation should be registered non-profit and/or have charitable status with an ability to sign up to a formal partnership agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities of the partnership and a code of conduct.

If you have any questions about the application process or the project, please write to amber@tacticaltech.org

How to apply

This call is now closed.

Interviews will take place 17th-21st June.

If you have any question about the application process or the project, want to get involved but want to check any of the requirements or ideas, or want to discuss any of the details or future work, please write to amber@tacticaltech.org ( PGP fingerprint: 7FF1 2375 4A65 809D 0D0D BC8E 1FA0 DE80 4810 DF53 )