ISPS Conference on “Designing Participation: Recruitment and Technology in Deliberative Democracy”

image of random colored dots being sorted into a pattern design
Event time: 
Friday, September 26, 2025 - 9:00am through 5:30pm
Location: 
Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Room A002
77 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Google Maps
Event description: 

ISPS DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS CONFERENCE EVENT

Deliberative mini-publics, also known as citizens’ assemblies, are increasingly being employed to involve everyday citizens in policy making, and often the representativeness of participants is key to both legitimacy of the process and the inputs to policy. However, there are sometimes significant challenges with selection bias, sampling, and recruitment of citizens. This workshop brings together academics and practitioners to speak both on substantive challenges to participation and whether computer science can provide new digital, open source, or algorithmic solutions to help improve sampling and recruitment.

Space is limited and registration is required. 
PLEASE REGISTER AT THIS LINK.

Conference Schedule for Friday, September 26:

time activity
9:00 AM Coffee and Pastries
9:15 AM Welcome & Introductions
9:30 AM “Selection Bias Means Selective Voices”
Alexandra Cirone (London School of Economics)
10:00 AM “Unsolved Problems from the Practitioner’s Perspective”
Kyle Redman (FIDE)
10:30 AM “Knowledge Gaps in Practice: Recruitment, Selection, and Participation”
Chris Ellis (Mass LBP)
11:00 AM Coffee Break
11:30 AM “Sortition Foundation: Technical Innovation and Data Collection from Local to Global Assemblies”
Tom Lord (Sortition Foundation)
12:00 PM “Time for a Comeback: Deliberation in the United States”
Ansel Herz (FIDE - North America)
1:00 PM Lunch
2:30 PM “Fair, Manipulation-Robust, and Transparent Sortition”
Carmel Baharav (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
3:00 PM “Lottery Lab: A Free, Public Sortition Toolkit”
Bailey Flanigan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
3:30 PM Coffee Break
4:00 PM Roundtable Discussion
5:30 PM Conference Adjourns

This conference is being organized by Alexandra Cirone with generous support from the Democratic Innovations Program at ISPS.

image of random colored dots being sorted into a design pattern with event title