Thank u, Sean
A salute and farewell to Brigade, Votizen & Causes
By now the news is out. The latest iteration of Sean Parker’s proto-Silicon Valley take on civic tech is heading off into the sunset. The team will no doubt share more about what they were trying to do and what went wrong. I want to make sure someone talks about what they are doing right.
To be very honest, it has stung over the years to watch *lots* of money go into one company (and its forebearers) as other worthwhile projects — nonprofit and for profit — struggled. But in its final days, Brigade and its leadership are showing their true colors and walking their civic talk by commiting to responsible stewardship of the data entrusted to them.
Thanks to the groundwork laid by previous Parker-funded companies, Votizen and Causes (before Facebook shut off the data spigot), Brigade is sitting on mountains of user data. Over the years, they built software to verify which of the individuals within their system were registered voters and to map these voters by interest and political actions. They don’t just have data on the people who signed up for Causes or Votizen or Brigade, they have all of *their* connections. It’s huge. And plenty of people would pay a lot of money for it and potentially do things with it that would be very inconsistent with Brigade (and Votizen and Causes) oft-expressed civic mission.
Parker and Brigade get a lot of (not undeserved) guff — none more than from my dear friend, Micah Sifry, the original chronicler of the tech-and-democracy intersection and caretaker of the “Civic Tech Graveyard.” Yes, it sucks that the tens of millions that went into these three companies over the years was not spread more generously to diverse founders with a range of approaches and life experience. I agree that it would have been nice to see some of these resources go to TurboVote or Code for America or Civic Hall or iCivics or Civic Eagle; or myriad other projects working to make government more accessible and transparent, bolster civic education, and sustain local journalism. But, as Anand Giridharadas continues to remind us, our current system leaves much of the decisions about funding and support of public benefit projects to the whims of kazillionaires and their philanthropies.
Sean Parker had an idea of what he wanted to see in the world and he put down many millions giving it a shot. While you can take issue with how resources were spent, you can’t say he didn’t go all-in or that he gave up without a fight. I would frankly like to see a lot more Sean Parker-sized checks to support technology for public good and many more efforts reflecting his high tolerance for risk. If this were the commercial tech space, there would be at least nine other companies with eight-figure investments trying to solve the same problem, and it would be understood that most would fail. Unfortunately, for one of the most important sectors of our society, there is nothing close to comparable resources.
Regardless of falling short of the mountain they set out to climb and spending lots of money in the process, Causes, Votizen, and Brigade did not hurt anyone. They may have even helped some people become more aware of pending issues, join with others, and get their input to lawmakers. However, mishandling the data at this point *could* cause immense harm — both in how the data could be used and in sowing general mistrust for future civic tech projects. Thankfully, CEO Matt Mahan, is not doing that. After they helped most of their team find homes with Pinterest, he reached out to me and several others in the civic space to express Brigade’s commitment, supported by its investors, to finding a good home for their data and their tech.
We currently live with few laws or regulations governing how individuals’ data can be used or transferred, especially when a company shuts down. It’s up to individuals to decide which lines can or cannot be crossed. Sean Parker, Ron Conway, Mark Benioff, and Brigade CEO, Matt Mahan, are making the right call as they responsibly bring the USS Brigade into port. Given the extreme risk of harm if they had decided to handle things any other way, they should be celebrated.
Responsible data management at the conclusion of one of the largest investments in civic tech to date is an honorable legacy for the Parker experiment. And, on behalf of everyone continuing the work in the civic tech space, I am grateful.
Thank you, Sean. What’s next?
Marci Harris is co-founder and CEO of POPVOX, an online platform for legislative information and civic engagement.
