News/Research

California Report Card Featured in The Promise of Berkeley

24 Jun, 2016

California Report Card Featured in The Promise of Berkeley

The California Report Card, developed by BCNM professor Ken Goldberg and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, was featured in the alumni magazine The Promise of Berkeley.

The California Report Card (CRC) is an online platform developed by the CITRIS Data and Democracy Initiative at UC Berkeley and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom that explores how smartphones and networks can enhance communication between the public and government leaders. The California Report Card allows visitors to grade issues facing California and to suggest issues for future report cards. The CRC is a mobile-optimized web application that allows participants to advise the state government on timely policy issues. They explore how technology can streamline and structure input from the public to elected officials, to provide them with timely feedback on the changing opinions and priorities of their constituents.

The Promise of Berkeley praised the project for it's wide reach across California. According to the article, "since it's launch more than 22,000 people in all 58 counties have assigned grades to what they think is important" and "[built] new bridges between Spanish and English speaking communities ... Notably the CRC rapidly translates between English and Spanish and seeks to reach the 30 percent of residents who speak Spanish at home."

Many members of the UC Berkeley community participated in the project including Camille Crittenden as Project Advisor, Sanjay Krishnan as Lead Application Design and Coding, Brandie Nonnecke as Project Manager and others.

Read the article, and more from the Promise of Berkeley here