Local Group to Speak at TEDx Burning Man

It is no surprise that some members of the Santa Cruz community are participating in Burning Man this year—the week long festival based on ideals of “radical self reliance,” which began Aug. 26 and continues to Sept. 2, definitely shares certain values with our fair burg, such as environmental responsibility and self expression.  And, of course, the rampant and unrestrained use of psychedelic drugs anytime, anywhere. 

One Santa Cruz company is capitalizing on Burning Man’s higher-brow side to get their message out. Manu Koenig, Co-Founer and CEO of Civinomics, a polling and outreach startup dedicated to facilitating community participation in social and political policies, will be giving a talk at the festival’s TEDx event on Thursday, Aug. 29.

Koenig’s talk will focus on technology’s role in facilitating more community participation in government. Explains Civinomics Director of Public Outreach & Co-Founder Robert Singleton (who is holding down the fort in Santa Cruz and admits he is “pretty jealous” about Koenig’s trip), “In a classical democracy everybody gets to sit down and weigh in on every single issue.” Civinomics hopes for a future where democracy looks more like that original model. “The rate in which people are getting online is greatly accelerating, and with technology for the first time ever you can transcend the barriers to space and time, and could have total participation on a given issue,” says Singleton. “If the barriers to entry are low enough you can literally be voting on important policies from the convenience of your mobile phone.”

Koenig will likely face a receptive audience at Burning Man: “This is a great chance to really showcase the new paradigm for self organized communities at the largest self organized community on the face of the planet,” says Singleton.

Koenig’s talk will be live-streamed at Tedx Black Rock City's website on Aug. 29, and after that will be available on Civinomics’ YouTube channel.