🔬Discovery: Mapmaker 👍

The Gerrymandering Game.

Making elections issues “fun” is a god-awful task. Believe me, I’ve tried. Others have as well, some going so far as to write children’s books explaining everything elections, from how “The People Pick a President” to the specifics of the Help America Vote act of 2002 (I accidentally ordered this book in 2003, thinking it was for an audience older than 12).

A while ago I backed a Kickstarter project that turned out to be a fun way to understand Gerrymandering. Perhaps not the type of game you will play with your family for hours on end. But this might be a very useful tool for starting a conversation at public forums and conferences. From the inventors:

In Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game, you are a mapmaker, which means you make maps… and determine who wins elections. Can you crack and pack voters? Can you scheme and strategize? Can you create unfair, lopsided, strangely shaped districts that will guarantee your party’s victory? Gerrymandering with friends and family (when it doesn’t affect real voters) is a whole lot of fun!

Purchase Link: MapMaker

J. Scott Christianson is a technologist and an Associate Teaching Professor of management at the Trulaske College of Business, where his interests are focused on the impact of technology on society. You can connect with him on his website, LinkedIn, Twitter, or by following his newsletter, The Free-Range Technologist.