Power to the People: How Silicon Valley is Changing Our Democracy | Mechanics' Institute

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Power to the People: How Silicon Valley is Changing Our Democracy
Panel discussion moderated by journalist Kim-Mai Cutler of TechCrunch

Cafe opens at 6:00 pm.

This panel of experts and innovators discuss how technology and media platforms are transforming the election process through political messaging, connecting and motivating voters, and fundraising. Are these new directions expanding or limiting access in a democracy for all? Panelists include Roddy Lindsay, CEO and co-founder of Hustle, Jason Putorti, co-founder of Votizen and Brigade; Kate Maeder, Senior Account Executive at Storefront Political Media and author Fred Turner, Professor of Communication at Stanford.


Photograph of Kim-Mai CutlerKim-Mai Cutler is a technology journalist and columnist for TechCrunch who has worked for Bloomberg, VentureBeat and The Wall Street Journal. She led mobile coverage at Inside Network, a six-person media startup that was acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2011. Cutler attended UC Berkeley and was editor of the student paper The Daily Californian. She has lived in London, New York, Buenos Aires and Hanoi and speaks Spanish and some conversational Vietnamese.

Photograph of Roddy LindsayRoddy Lindsay is the CEO and co-founder of Hustle, a startup that helps organizations build enduring relationships with their supporters using personal text messaging. In the 2016 election cycle, Hustle has helped political groups such as the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns deliver more than 20 million personal messages to and from American voters. He previously was a data scientist and software engineer at Facebook, and currently serves as a board member of the Mechanics Institute.

Photograph of Kate MaederKate Maeder has been at Storefront Political Media since 2009. She develops strategic digital and traditional media efforts and leverages new direct response tools to drive coordinated, grassroots campaigns. She's the lead architect behind a number of digital engagement platforms and online communities, including Reset San Francisco, domestic violence curriculum tool www.TestKansas.com, and I Agree To See. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, she volunteered for Barack Obama in 2008 in California, Nevada and Colorado. She is currently the San Francisco Chapter Director of New Leaders Council.

Photograph of Jason PutoriJason Putorti is the co-founder Brigade, a civic engagement platform and Votizen, a company that connects registered voters to their local, regional, and national representatives via social media. He is best known as the Lead Designer of Mint.com, where he was responsible for the user experience, visual design, and user interface for the product, as well as the brand image . He briefly stayed on as the Lead on Creative Direction for the Personal Finance division after Mint was acquired by Intuit.

Photograph of Fred TurnerFred Turner is an historian and a Professor of Communication at Stanford University. He writes mostly about media technology and cultural change. He is the author of The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism, and Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory. 

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