For tech in politics, thinking beyond echo chambers

[Commentary] Listen to campaign managers, and they'll tell you that the holy grail for tech in politics is increased segmentation; tracking opinions based on demographic information and reaching people through the media they’re most likely to consume. Yet for groups and movements, the apps that serve them, and voters, the future of tech will prove to be the exact opposite.

The dichotomy isn't quite as drastic as it may sound. While increased segmentation serves a real purpose for campaigns, for groups and civic tech start-ups, those same predictions of how people will and will not react to issues, and where they receive their information, has a hard limit, where growth essentially stops. On the other hand, the political apps and websites that will find success are the ones that will place less emphasis on divisions. They will drive constant reengagement by introducing people to a wider array of issues and causes that audiences might not have been aware of, but care about. Tech in politics is so exciting. At its best, it can become a true game changer, if it is used in the right way. It can lend itself to paradigm shifts on many issues, dynamically altering the staid course that we seem to have been on for so long. Ditching divisions means that the future can be limitless.

[Bart Myers is the CEO of Countable.us, a legislative advocacy and congressional engagement app]