Comparison of civic technology platforms

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Civic technology is technology that enables engagement and participation, or enhances the relationship between the people and government, by enhancing citizen communications and public decision, improving government delivery of services and infrastructure. This comparison of civic technology platforms compares platforms that are designed to improve citizen participation in governance, distinguished from technology that directly deals with government infrastructure.

Contents

Platform types

Graham Smith of the University of Southampton, in his 2005 book Beyond the Ballot, used the following categorization of democratic innovations: [1]

Comparison chart

Platform NameFounderDates ActiveCorporate StructureGeographyParent CompanyParty AffiliationTechnology UsedOpen SourcePlatform TypeSoftware LicensePrimary Funders
CitizenLabWietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, Koen Gremmelprez [2] September 2015 [3] - PresentFor profit[ citation needed ]Brussels, Belgium [4] Proprietary software NoE-democracy innovation, Consultation innovation
Pol.is Colin Megill, Christopher Small and Michael Bjorkegren-Present501(c)3Seattle, WAYes Deliberative Democracy AGPL v3
Countable (app) Bart Myers, Peter Arzintar [5] July 2014 – Present [5] For profitSan Francisco, California, United StatesNon-partisan
Loomio Ben Knight[ citation needed ]Nov 1, 2012[ citation needed ] - PresentFor profit[ citation needed ]Wellington, New Zealand[ citation needed ] Ruby, Javascript [6] YesDeliberative Innovation AGPL v3 [7] Crowdfunding [8]
DemocracyOS Pia Mancini, Santiago Siri[ citation needed ]2012[ citation needed ] - PresentNon profit[ citation needed ]Palo Alto, California, United States[ citation needed ]Democracy Earth Foundation Net Party [9] JavaScript [10] YesDirect Democracy Innovation GPL v3 [11] Y Combinator, Teespring [ citation needed ]
VotingWorks Ben Adida2018-Present501(c)3San Francisco, CAn/aYes Open-source voting system
GovTrack Joshua Tauberer [12] 2003 [13] - PresentWashington, District of Columbia, United States[ citation needed ]Civic Impulse, LLC [14] Django [15] YesCrowdfunding
NGP Van Mark T. Sullivan, Nathaniel Pearlman 1997–present[ citation needed ]For profit[ citation needed ]Washington, DC, United States[ citation needed ]Democratic and Progressive Campaigns[ citation needed ] Proprietary software NoE-democracy innovation
OpenGov Joe Lonsdale, Mike Rosengarten, Nate Levine, Zac Bookman[ citation needed ]2012–presentFor profit[ citation needed ]Redwood City, California, United States JavaScript, Ruby, Java, Python [ citation needed ]Yes Emerson Collective [ citation needed ]
Hustle Perry Rosenstein, Roddy Lindsay, Tyler Brock[ citation needed ]Dec 2014[ citation needed ]For profit[ citation needed ]San Francisco, California, United States[ citation needed ] Proprietary software NoElectoral Innovation Social Capital (venture capital)
Resistbot Jason Putorti, Eric Ries 2017–present 501c4 Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States [16] Resistbot Action FundNon-partisan Python, Amazon Web Services, RapidPro, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL Yes [17] Electoral innovations, Consultation innovations, Co-governance innovations, E-democracy innovations CC0
LiquidFeedback Andreas Nitsche, Jan Behrens, Axel Kistner and Bjoern Swierczek [18] November 2009 [19] Berlin, Germany [20] Public Software Group, Interaktive Demokratie, FlexiGuided GmbH [19] Lua (programming language), PL/pgSQL YesDeliberative Innovation MIT License
TurboVote Kathryn Peters, Seth Flaxman[ citation needed ]2010–present [ citation needed ]For profit[ citation needed ]Democracy Works [21] Proprietary software NoElectoral Innovation
We The People Obama administrationSeptember 2011 – PresentGovernment AgencyWashington, DC, United States Democratic Party JavaScript, PHP, CSS [22] YesCo-governance Innovation GNU General Public License [22] United States Government
Voatz Nimit S. Sawhney[ citation needed ]2014–present[ citation needed ]For profit[ citation needed ]Boston, Massachusetts, United States [23] Go [24] NoElectoral InnovationMedici Ventures[ citation needed ]
Helios Voting Ben Adida2008–present [25] Non profit Python, JavaScript, HTML [26] YesDirect Democracy Innovation Apache License [26]
U Report UNICEF Innovation [27] May 2011 – Present [28] Non profitNew York, United States UNICEF Python, HTML, CSS [29] YesConsultation Innovation GNU Affero General Public License [29]
Maji VoiceWater Services Regulatory Board (WASREB)2012–present [30] Government AgencyNairobi, KenyaWater Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) Open Source [30] YesConsultation Innovation GNU General Public License [31] World Bank Water and Sanitation Program [30]
Democracy 2.1 Karel Janeček2013–presentPrague Municipal District, Czech Republic Proprietary software NoDirect Democracy Innovation
Secure VoteMax Kaye, Nathan Spataro [32] 2016–present [32] New South Wales, Australia [32] Python, HTML, Shell, [33] Blockchain [32] NoDirect Democracy Innovation MIT License
Brigade James Windon, Jason Putorti, John Thrall, Matt Mahan, Miche Capone[ citation needed ]Jun 11, 2014 [34] - May 1, 2019 [35] For profitSan Francisco, California, United States [36] Brigade Media Proprietary software NoElectoral Innovation, Deliberative Innovation Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Sean Parker [37]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Graham (2005). "Beyond the ballot: 57 democratic innovations from around the world". westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk. POWER Inquiry. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  2. ↑ "CitizenLab". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  3. ↑ "CitizenLab". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  4. ↑ "About us - CitizenLab". citizenlab.co. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  5. 1 2 "Countable Wants To Make Politics A 'Continual Conversation'". TechCrunch. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  6. ↑ "loomio/loomio". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  7. ↑ "loomio/loomio". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  8. ↑ "Out in the Open: Occupy Wall Street Reincarnated as Open Source Software". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  9. ↑ "A Conversation With DemocracyOS, The YC Non-Profit That Built A Latin American Political Party – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 17 April 2015. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  10. ↑ "DemocracyOS/democracyos". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  11. ↑ "DemocracyOS/democracyos". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  12. ↑ "Web site a pork hunting ground / It joins others aiding analysis of bills for 'earmark' signs". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  13. ↑ "Joshua Tauberer's Homepage". razor.occams.info. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  14. ↑ "govtrack/civic-impulse-llc". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  15. ↑ "govtrack/govtrack.us-web". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  16. ↑ "Resistbot". resist.bot. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  17. ↑ Form definitions powering Resistbot's electronic deliveries to elected officials in the United States.: resistbot/contact-officials, Resistbot, 2019-12-30, retrieved 2019-12-31
  18. ↑ "Etopia News L.A. talks with Andreas Nitsche | Interaktive Demokratie". www.interaktive-demokratie.org. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  19. 1 2 "Information Kit (PDF)" (PDF).
  20. ↑ "LiquidFeedback - The democracy software". liquidfeedback.org. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  21. ↑ "Democracy Works: Democracy Fund". www.democracyfund.org. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  22. 1 2 "WhiteHouse/petitions". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  23. ↑ "Voatz". angel.co. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  24. ↑ "blacktreebird/voatz". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  25. ↑ Adida, Marneffe, Pereira, Quisquater, Ben, Olivier, Olivier, Jean-Jacques. "Electing a University President using Open-Audit Voting: Analysis of real-world use of Helios" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. 1 2 "benadida/helios-server". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  27. ↑ "U-Report: Ilhasoft's application for Unicef - Ilhasoft". Ilhasoft. 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  28. ↑ "U-report application revolutionizes social mobilization, empowering Ugandan youth". UNICEF. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  29. 1 2 "rapidpro/ureport". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  30. 1 2 3 "WB Maji Voice Policy Note" (PDF).
  31. ↑ "CustomerFeedbackSystem/code". GitHub. 15 August 2015. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  32. 1 2 3 4 "SecureVote". Techboard. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  33. ↑ "muminoff/securevote". GitHub. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  34. ↑ "Sean Parker's Brigade Media Acquires Causes In Its Quest To Revitalize American Democracy". TechCrunch. 11 June 2014. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  35. ↑ "Sean Parker's Brigade/Causes acquired by govtech app Countable". TechCrunch. May 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  36. ↑ "Follow Brigade on Index.co". Index.co. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  37. ↑ "Brigade Media Raises $9.3M From Sean Parker To Shake Up American Democracy". TechCrunch. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
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