Digital Shaper 2020 «Infrastructure Builder»
For the past five years, the Digital Shaper award has been given to people who have significantly shaped and driven forward the digitalisation of Switzerland and beyond – these people are, for lack of a better term, the Who’s Who of a digital Switzerland. The award is given out by a 12-member jury of the “digitalswitzerland” association in cooperation with the business magazine BILANZ, the “Handelszeitung” and the French-language newspaper “Le Temps” from Lausanne.
Digital Shapers are found in big organizations as well as start-ups. They update exisiting structures for the digital age, set the circumstances for digitalization or lay important groundwork for new technologies as researchers and authors. They are pioneers, data-driven visionaries, who cover all areas, from eco-supportive systems for startups through innovative solutions in health care all the way to tools to alleviate education.
These makers and thinkers are aligned and linked in their motivation to positively influence Switzerland and the whole world.
Clemens Maria Schuster, one of politik.ch’s founding members, has been awarded the “Infrastructure Builder” award. This category is instrumental for laying the framework conditions of digitalisation: the infrastructure, the judicial / political rules, the data itself and of course, the security.
With our platform politik.ch, we have achieved two things: on the one hand, our company proofs that open data or more specifically, open government data can provide a basis for a successful business model. A resource that, up until now, has been widely unused, becomes fuel for innovation and societal change that is visible.
On the other hand, digitalisation in politics means more than just digital ad campaings on Facebook and Twitter-discussions between politicians and journalists. The political process is far more complex, longwinded and often not very transparent.
That’s exactly where politik.ch comes into play: when new political affairs get introduced in a national or cantonal parliament, when they are read or voted upon – an algorithm checks the daily agendas and notifies our customers about changes to the topics and affairs they have subscribed to. The data itself is public, but scattered on multiple websites, of low quality (PDFs which are printed out and scanned in again, for example) or hidden behind login-pages. politik.ch changes this and provides transparency in political processes immediately.
Because the platform is automatic and complete, we guarantee our customers legal certainty, minimized risks, saved time and creates advantages. The trick behind it all: the interpretation is always left for the customer. A new environmental bill can be interpreted completely differently by an environmental protection agency and an energy provider, even though the data is exactly the same. This is how all parties profit: politicans and members of parliament, companies, NGOs, associations, chambers and lobbyists – and of course, all citizens as well.
Laudation from «Bilanz»
In 2007, Clemens Schuster came to Basel to study philology and philosophy. An Austrian by birth, he wanted to earn a doctorate’s degree at the university of Basel. But soon after, he changed subjects and made his year-long hobby to his profession: the internet. At first hired by a NGO (World Vision Switzerland), for which he did digital fundraising and social media work, then in his own specialized digital agency. In 2018, together with Thomas Gemperle, he founded politik.ch – a platform, which collects all open government data in Switzerland, structures it and presents it nicely. His success is proof, that open government data as a business model can work. His customers are political parties, associations, lobbyists, organisations, campaigners and political consultants – in short, everybody who’s interested in the political process and who wants to influcence it. They receive updates and reminders for all their respective policy and topic areas, don’t miss a date and are up to date at all times. What exactly that means, Clemens Schuster leaves to his over 30 customers and 300 users. His platform is not a consultation agency, it only provides data. “You have to let machines do, what machines do great”, he says, “and let humans do, what humans do great.”
Source: https://www.handelszeitung.ch/people/clemens-maria-schuster
Our heartfelt congratulations!
