 | |
| Founded | July 2004 |
|---|---|
| Type | Limited liability company |
| Location | |
Area served | USA |
| Services | Open Source, Open Data, Drupal, DevOps, Training, Human Centered Design |
| Fields | Civic technology Agile development Free software development |
Key people | Aaron Pava (Management & Operations) Henry Poole (Management & Operations) |
| Employees | 100 – 150 [2] |
| Website | civicactions |
CivicActions, Inc. is a services firm that provides technological support with a focus on free and open-source software to agencies. [3]
CivicActions was founded as a Llc in 2004. Their focus was to provide hosted FOSS group forming network technologies to NGOs. They were the early adopters of Drupal (that they are a service provider now [4] ), Openwall Linux, and CiviCRM with its native mobile app CiviMobile. Over the period between 2004 and 2012, it's claimed that they have served over 175 organizations including Center for Reproductive Rights, [5] American Public Media, Amnesty International, [6] and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
In 2014, CivicActions, with people in federal, state and local governments, founded AGL (Agile Government Leadership) [7] and published the Agile Government Handbook . [8] All of the work of AGL is published under public license, where it can be used by government workers, as well as other agile software vendors.
In early 2016, CivicActions co-founder Aaron Pava was recruited to join the United States Digital Service team in Washington DC to assist the federal government in transforming procurement practices to enable federal agencies to more easily procure services from small businesses like CivicActions. [9] He returned to CivicActions in November 2016.
CivicActions was a founding member of the Digital Services Coalition. [10]
Gregory Heller and Henry Poole, who are both involved in Free Software Foundation and CivicActions, with the help of Peter T. Brown who was the president of FSF, have played major role in the formation of Defective by Design, an anti-DRM campaign advocating for elimination of digital restrictions.
CivicActions has worked with multiple entities — mostly United States government entities. In 2016, they worked with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in creating GlobalNet, a collaboration and social media platform. [11] [12] [ better source needed ]. In 2017, CivicActions worked with California Polytechnic State University in creating their Digital Democracy platform. [13] [14] They also work with the Department of Education with the creation and maintenance of LINCS, an adult literacy website [15] [16] [ better source needed ], and with the San Francisco Human Services Agency, with the creation of Eatfresh. [17] [18] Through Acquia, CivicActions also worked with the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury. [19] CivicActions has also worked on website modernization for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Communications Commission. [20] [21] [22]
CivicActions provides several services. [23] Those are:
Drupal is a free and open-source web content management system (CMS) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Drupal provides an open-source back-end framework for at least 14% of the top 10,000 websites worldwide and 1.2% of the top 10 million websites—ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites. Drupal can also be used for knowledge management and for business collaboration.
Digital literacy is an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information using typing or digital media platforms. It is a combination of both technical and cognitive abilities in using information and communication technologies to create, evaluate, and share information.
Financial literacy is the possession of skills, knowledge, and behaviors that allow an individual to make informed decisions regarding money. Financial literacy, financial education and financial knowledge are used interchangeably. Financially unsophisticated individuals cannot plan financially because of their poor financial knowledge. Financially sophisticated individuals are good at financial calculations; for example they understand compound interest, which helps them to engage in low-credit borrowing. Most of the time, unsophisticated individuals pay high costs for their debt borrowing.
The State Library of Tasmania is the reference, special collections, research and public lending library in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, Australia. It is part of Libraries Tasmania. Libraries Tasmania includes a state-wide network of library services, community learning, adult literacy and the State’s archives and heritage services.
User experience design, upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research", defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a company, its services, and its products. User experience design is a user centered design approach because it considers the user's experience when using a product or platform. Research, data analysis, and test results drive design decisions in UX design rather than aesthetic preferences and opinions, for which is known as UX Design Research. Unlike user interface design, which focuses solely on the design of a computer interface, UX design encompasses all aspects of a user's perceived experience with a product or website, such as its usability, usefulness, desirability, brand perception, and overall performance. UX design is also an element of the customer experience (CX), and encompasses all design aspects and design stages that are around a customer's experience.
The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) formerly Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) is a subdivision of the United States Department of Education. OCTAE falls under the supervision of the Undersecretary, who oversees policies, programs and activities related to vocational and adult education, postsecondary education, college aid and the President's financial reforms for the Pell Grant program.
Zivtech is a Philadelphia-based open-source software development firm that designs and builds websites and web applications for organizations worldwide.
CiviCRM is a web-based suite of internationalized open-source software for constituency relationship management that falls under the broad rubric of customer relationship management. It is specifically designed for the needs of non-profit, non-governmental, and advocacy groups, and serves as an association-management system.
Appnovation is a global, full service digital consultancy firm with headquarters in Canada, specializing in web, intranet and mobile application development using open technologies including Drupal and Alfresco, HTML5 frameworks like SproutCore and PhoneGap, as well as middleware, Big Data and business intelligence services using Mulesoft, Hadoop and MongoDB. Appnovation is one of five companies in Canada to achieve Platinum Partner status with Alfresco Software, Inc. and Enterprise Select Partner status with Acquia.
Libraries Tasmania, formerly LINC Tasmania, is the Tasmanian state government-run organisation that operates libraries in Tasmania, including the state's reference library, a network of public lending libraries, archives, heritage, adult education, and adult literacy services. Earlier predecessors of the network were HuonLINC and the Community Knowledge Network.
The Government Digital Service is a unit of the Government of the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, tasked with transforming the provision of online public services.
18F is a digital services agency within the Technology Transformation Services department of the General Services Administration (GSA) of the United States Government. Their purpose is to deliver digital services and technology products.
Nick Sinai is a venture capitalist, adjunct faculty at Harvard Kennedy School, author, and a former senior official in the Obama Administration.
Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.
The United States Digital Service is a technology unit housed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It provides consultation services to federal agencies on information technology. It seeks to improve and simplify digital service, and to improve federal websites. It was launched on August 11, 2014.
Backdrop CMS is an Open source, community-developed, content management system, written in PHP, and licensed under the GNU General Public License. Backdrop CMS was forked from the Drupal CMS in 2013 by two Drupal developers, Nate Lampton and Jen Lampton. Backdrop is very similar to version 7 of the Drupal CMS, maintaining most of the same functionality and features. The project's mission is to "enable people to build highly customized websites affordably, through collaboration and open source software".
The People's Code is an ongoing open source project that aims to make all US Federal agencies and departments utilize open source software, (OSS), for their platforms, at a pilot minimum of 20% open source. In so doing, Federal departments and agencies can be more transparent with the work they do. Software can eventually be streamlined across all agencies, and people can begin to make suggestions on how to improve the code and policy these departments work on. The belief that citizens should have this information available and open to them, is the idea behind what the Obama administration coined as the, People's Code.
Widen Enterprises Inc. is a technology company that designs, develops and provides digital asset management and product information management software as well as digital asset management services. The company was founded in 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin by Arthur and Emily Widen, initially as Widen Engraving Co., a plate-engraving business providing printing-plates for newspapers. The company sustained business viability and longevity by adapting its products to technological advances and business model transformation. The company was acquired by Acquia in September 2021 and operates as part of the Acquia Digital Experience platform.
Lisa Gelobter is a computer scientist, technologist and chief executive. She was the Chief Digital Service Officer for the United States Department of Education.
The Digital Services Coalition (DSC) is a trade association based in the United States that facilitates the delivery of digital services to U.S. government entities. Formed in 2018, the coalition's membership includes digital companies with common values, and aim to enhance the quality, accessibility, and efficiency of government technology services.
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