James D. Long explores how to reduce corruption and improve government performance by using technology to empower citizens. Violence, intimidation, and vote buying are common in corrupt countries and reducing these issues is an important priority. Just as Yelp has made restaurants more accountable to their customers, technology can make government more accountable to its citizens.

James D. Long is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington and an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He is a faculty affiliate at the University of Washington's Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), Near and Middle East Studies Program, and UC-Berkeley's Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA). James's research in sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan focuses on elections in developing countries, including the determinants of voting behavior, the dynamics of electoral fraud, the impact of ICT on corruption monitoring, and the effects of civil war and insurgency on state-building. In 2010, James served as Democracy International's Research Director for their Election Observation mission for Afghanistan, and has observed elections in South Africa (2014), Kenya (2013, 2007), Egypt (2011), Uganda (2011), Afghanistan (2014, 2010, 2009), and Ghana (2008).

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx