Downtown Austin during SXSW 2015. Photo by Flickr user Ed Schipul.

The tech industry converged on Austin, Texas, for SXSW Interactive, which began March 13 and ends today. It’s been a time for networking, demos, panels and learning about trends and insights on what’s next in tech.

Knight Foundation teams were particularly interested in hearing from people with innovative ideas in the areas of civic tech and elections, especially given that the first News Challenge of 2015 focuses on elections. Two Knight-sponsored panels on civic tech took different approaches to the topic: The first considered how journalism and civic tech can hack the upcoming national election; and the second panel discussed how civic tech can help strengthen communities.

Knight Foundation VP of Journalism Jennifer Preston moderated the first panel, titled “How Can Journalism, Civic Tech Hack Politics in 2016?” Panelists included Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of Personal Democracy Media; Emily Ramshaw, editor at The Texas Tribune; Ruby Cramer, political reporter for Buzzfeed; and Seth Flaxman, executive director and co-founder of Democracy Works.

Panelists discussed how journalists and media organizations can use technology, social media and data to help voters—and potential voters—make informed decisions on local and national issues. Cramer said that tech has been steadily infiltrating politics through social media sites such as  Facebook and Twitter. Rasiej proposed two areas of election coverage where tech can make a difference: live coverage of voter turnout and elections, and candidate debates. “There is huge potential for far more interaction to happen between candidates and citizens,” he said.

Panelists agreed that the major opportunity for hacking the 2016 elections lies with mobile.

Ramshaw of The Texas Tribune said that mobile’s key strength is the increased accessibility it brings to elections. Anyone with a smartphone can access emails, apps, tools and information before heading to the polls. And because of the detailed data provided by mobile platforms, media organizations are able to better discern who their content is reaching, and who they have to target to expand their demographics and serve more communities.

The focus shouldn’t be on changing the electoral process or the tools themselves, said Rasiej, “but rather, on how we communicate with each other about civic issues everyday.”

Knight Foundation is partnering with the Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Rita Allen Foundation on Knight News Challenge: Elections, which asks the question, How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections? The best nonpartisan ideas will share in more than $3 million. Apply at newschallenge.org by 5 p.m. ET March 19. Winners will be announced in June.  

 Jessica Hodder is the digital communications associate at Knight Foundation.