Civic technology companies

Last updated

Civic technology companies are platforms, products, and services that facilitate civic engagement. [1] [2] [3] Civic technology encompasses any type of technology that enables greater participation in government affairs, or "assists government in delivering citizen services and strengthening ties with the public". [4] The phrase can essentially be used to describe any company that is concerned with improving the quality, access, and efficiency of government services within the political system through technological means. [2] Although similar, Civic Technology is different from Government Technology. [5] Civic technology seeks to connect citizens with each other or with their government. [6] Government Technology primarily seeks to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of governments' internal operations. [5] Although the term can be used differently, Government Technology can also be classified as a subcategory within civic technology due to the indirect benefits citizens gain from government efficiency. [7]

Contents

Categories of these companies

Most current civic technology companies fall under a few categories. First is Government Technology, [8] which is technology used by nations to either increase the efficiency of their operations or to enhance their connection to citizens. [7] Another category is Advocacy, which is made up of civic technology companies used for political or social purposed by non-government groups. [7] The last main category is Voting, which encompasses companies that seek to improve voting systems. [7]

Civic technology companies

Platform NameFounderParty AffiliationDates CreatedOpen SourceCorporate Structure
Gov TechJacqueline Poh [9] Not Affiliated2016OpenNon-Profit
Bang the TableMatthew Crozier and Crispin Butteriss [10] Not Affiliated2008OpenNon-Profit
City InnovateKamran Saddique [11] Not Affiliated2015OpenNon-Profit
Code for America Jennifer Pahlka [12] Not Affiliated2009OpenNon-Profit
coUrbanizeKarin Brandt [13] Not Affiliated2013OpenNon-Profit
OpenGovZachary Bookman [14] Not Affiliated2012OpenNon-Profit
AccelaGary Kovacs [15] Not Affiliated2018OpenFor-Profit
CityBaseMike Duffy [16] Not Affiliated2013OpenNon-Profit
MuniSightGreg Berger [17] Not Affiliated2017OpenFor-Profit
NavaRohan BhobeNot Affiliated2015OpenPublic Benefit Corporation (PBC)
NextdoorNirav Tolia, Sarah Leary, Prakash Janakiraman and David Wiesen [18] Not Affiliated2008OpenNon-Profit
Fiscal Note Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen [19] Not Affiliated2013OpenFor-Profit
MaptionnaireMaarit Kahila, Anna Broberg [20] Not Affiliated2011NotFor-Profit

Division of funding by company type

Data on investment provided for civic technology companies from 2011 to 2013 offers insight into the current landscape of these technology companies. Data collected by the Knight Foundation in this time period analyzed the difference in funding between Open Government and Community Action civic technology companies. [21] The Knight Foundation defines Open Government oriented companies as promoting citizen participation in government and Community Action companies as technology companies seeking to empower and unify citizens with a bottom-down approach. [21] Of investment in this time period, Community Action civic technology companies received more funds than Open Government oriented civic technology companies. [21] Within Community Action companies, Neighborhood Forums and P2P Local Sharing received most of the investment funds. [21] Within Open Government civic technology companies, Data Access & Transparency companies and Resident Feedback companies received the largest share of investments within the Open Government category. [21]

Illustration of 3 main sections of civic technology companies. Inspiration from Samsonowa&Partners infographic Civic tech companies graphic.png
Illustration of 3 main sections of civic technology companies. Inspiration from Samsonowa&Partners infographic

Possible future directions for civic technology companies

As of 2021, various trends highlight the potential areas for growth civic technology can expand into. While many businesses assess data in real time, many governments lack the online infrastructure for this capability. [22] Civic technology could play a pivotal role in more robust and frequent government data collection for its citizens. [22] The gains of SpaceX highlighted the role private companies could play in developing technology for further space endeavors in coordination with the government. [23] Furthermore, governments' increasing reliance on technology such as drones and software for military units show potential for military-focused civic technology companies to work with Governments. [23] In the current landscape of civic technology companies, there remains potential for civic technology companies to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion for the community or communities they target. [24] Civic technology could also connect younger citizens with their government. [25] Specifically, since age groups under 30 primarily engage in their democracy through social media or other online platforms, online based civic technology companies could possibly increase engagement from these younger age groups. [25] Furthermore, issues ranging from increasing school violence to increasing local environmental preservation concerns could also create high demand for civic technology companies to address these issues. [26] Lastly, due to growing interest in and implementation of Participatory Budgeting and Citizens' Jury, there is greater demand and potential for civic technology companies that enable these practices on a massive scale. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-democracy</span> Use of information and communication technology in political and governance processes

E-democracy, also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is credited to digital activist Steven Clit. By using 21st-century ICT, e-democracy seeks to enhance democracy, including aspects like civic technology and E-government. Proponents argue that by promoting transparency in decision-making processes, e-democracy can empower all citizens to observe and understand the proceedings. Also, if they possess overlooked data, perspectives, or opinions, they can contribute meaningfully. This contribution extends beyond mere informal disconnected debate; it facilitates citizen engagement in the proposal, development, and actual creation of a country's laws. In this way, e-democracy has the potential to incorporate crowdsourced analysis more directly into the policy-making process.

Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas. According to the OECD, Omidyar Network's financing for 2019 development increased by 10% to US$58.9 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participatory budgeting</span>

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows citizens or residents of a locality to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic engagement</span> Individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern

Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.

Electronic participation (e-participation) refers to the use of ICT in facilitating citizen participation in government-related processes, encompassing areas such as administration, service delivery, decision-making, and policy-making. As such, e-participation shares close ties with e-government and e-governance participation. The term's emergence aligns with the digitization of citizen interests and interactions with political service providers, primarily due to the proliferation of e-government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clean technology</span> Any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts

Clean technology, in short cleantech or climatetech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.

The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States Congress, the executive branch, and in state and local governments. The foundation's primary focus was the role of money in politics. The organization sought to increase campaign finance regulations and disclosure requirements. The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in September 2020.

Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successful investments include Affirm, DoorDash, Square, Impossible Foods, Instacart, and OpenAI.

An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors often provide support to startups at a very early stage, once or in a consecutive manner, and when most investors are not prepared to back them. In a survey of 150 founders conducted by Wilbur Labs, about 70% of entrepreneurs will face potential business failure, and nearly 66% will face this potential failure within 25 months of launching their company. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital and provide advice to their portfolio companies. The number of angel investors has greatly increased since the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participatory Politics Foundation</span> United States non-profit organization

The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) is a United States non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve U.S. democracy. It works to increase public participation by, among other means, modernizing the political system through technological advancements that help connect lawmakers and citizens. The non-profit opened in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nextdoor</span> Hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods

Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. is an American company which operates a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California. Nextdoor launched in the United States in October 2011, and is available in 11 countries as of May 2023. Users of Nextdoor are required to submit their real names and addresses to the website. However, they do not verify the accuracy of submitted names and addresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghana Open Data Initiative</span> Government agency

Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) was started in January 2012 by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) in partnership with the Web Foundation (WF), to make Government of Ghana data available to the public for re-use. The establishment of GODI is meant to promote efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance as well as to facilitate economic growth by means of the creation of Mobile and Web applications for the Ghanaian and world markets. The project was scheduled for completion in 2014 and aimed to create a sustainable Open Data ecosystem for Ghana. GODI was launched with a 100 data sets categorized as political, legal, organizational, technical, social or economic. The vision of GODI is to develop an open data community involving the Government of Ghana, civil society organizations, industry, developer communities, academia, media practitioners, and the citizenry, to interact with one another with the aim of developing an open data portal to bring about transparency, accountability and efficiency in government.

OpenGov is a government technology company that offers cloud software for public sector accounting, planning, budgeting, citizen services, and procurement. OpenGov serves over 1,000 cities, counties, and state agencies across 49 states. In April 2020, OpenGov released a full-cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system designed specifically for municipal and county governments.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fintech</span> Subset of technologies used in finance

Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are regarded as the "ABCD" of fintech. The use of smartphones for mobile banking, investing, borrowing services, and cryptocurrency are examples of technologies designed to make financial services more accessible to the general public. Fintech companies consist of both startups and established financial institutions and technology companies trying to replace or enhance the usage of financial services provided by existing financial companies.

Sidewalk Labs LLC is an urban planning and infrastructure subsidiary of Google. Its stated goal is to improve urban infrastructure through technological solutions, and tackle issues such as cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage. The company was headed by Daniel L. Doctoroff, former Deputy Mayor of New York City for economic development and former chief executive of Bloomberg L.P. until 2021. Other notable employees include Craig Nevill-Manning, co-founder of Google's New York office and inventor of Froogle, and Rohit Aggarwala, who served as chief policy officer of the company and is now Commissioner of New York City Department of Environmental Protection. It was originally part of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, before being absorbed into Google in 2021 following Doctoroff's departure from the company due to a suspected ALS diagnosis.

CitizenLab is a Belgian civic tech company that builds citizen engagement platforms for local governments. The company was founded in 2015 by Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and Koen Gremmelprez. CitizenLab uses a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) model to provide local governments with readymade platforms and tools for collecting and managing citizen input.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and technology</span> Disruption to science, space and technology projects globally

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many scientific and technical institutions globally, resulting in lower productivity in a number of fields and programs. However, the impact of the pandemic has also led to the opening of several new research funding lines for government agencies around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ion District</span>

The Ion District, Ion Innovation District, or Rice Innovation District, is a technology park and innovation district in Midtown Houston which was established as a joint initiative between Rice University and the City of Houston. It has also been called the South Main Innovation District. The district's central hub and first building is the Ion, which opened in 2021 after owner Rice Management Company (RMC) converted it from a former Sears store. The building houses coworking and office spaces, business incubators and accelerators, classrooms, a prototyping lab, investor studio, and restaurants. Current tenants include Chevron Technology Ventures and Microsoft. The district also includes Greentown Labs Houston, a business incubator focused on climate technology and sustainable energy, and a large outdoor plaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiago C. Peixoto</span> Brazilian political scientist

Tiago Carneiro Peixoto is a Brazilian political scientist and Senior Governance Specialist at the World Bank, who promotes participatory democracy and digital government around the globe. Recognized as an expert in e-democracy and participatory democracy, he was nominated as one of the most innovative people in democracy, as well as one of the 100 most influential people in digital government.

References

  1. ↑ Rowley, Jason (12 October 2016). "Civic Tech Faces Uphill Battle In Work To Build A Better Government And Society". MatterMark. MatterMark. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 mheadd (16 April 2015). "Civic Tech: Days of Future Past". Civic.io. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Civic Ninjas. "Twitter List of Companies in Knight Foundation's Report on Civic Tech". Civic Ninjas. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  4. ↑ Wood, Colin (15 August 2016). "What is Civic Tech?". Gov Tech. eRepublic. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  5. 1 2 Europe, Wietse Van Ransbeeck Founder of CitizenLab On a mission to shape local democracies for the digital age Proud Forbes 30 Under 30; about #Brussels, YTILI Fellow Talk to me; #Europe; Tech, Civic; philosophy (2019-08-29). "What's the Difference Between "Civic Tech" and "GovTech"?". CitizenLab's Blog. Retrieved 2021-11-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ "Exploring Civic Tech and Gov Tech - WeSolve". 20 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Poppert, Derek (2021-05-07). "Navigating the field of civic tech". Tradecraft. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  8. ↑ "Government Technology", Wikipedia, 2022-10-04, retrieved 2022-10-05
  9. ↑ "About Us". GovTech. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  10. ↑ "Bang the Table – Participedia". participedia.net. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  11. ↑ "Team". www.cityinnovate.com. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  12. ↑ "Jennifer Pahlka". Code for America. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  13. ↑ Spanring, Christian. "coUrbanize | Press & Awards | Read about the work we're doing". coUrbanize. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  14. ↑ "About OpenGov - The Leader in Cloud Technology for Government". OpenGov. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  15. ↑ Gary, Kovacs. "Gary Kovacs Linkedin Page".
  16. ↑ John, Pletz (2019-07-10). "Tech 50 - Mike Duffy, 41". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  17. ↑ Falconer, Justin (2017-05-04). "Announcing MuniSight!". MuniSight. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  18. ↑ "Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more". nextdoor.com. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  19. ↑ "Global Policy and Market Intelligence". FiscalNote. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  20. ↑ "About Maptionnaire, Citizen Engagement Platform". Maptionnaire. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 "Knight Foundation: Trends in Civic Tech". www.knightfoundation.org. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  22. 1 2 "5 tech trends that will transform governments". World Economic Forum. September 2015. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  23. 1 2 Sullivan, Mark (2021-06-04). "Forget ad optimization: This VC wants to invest in startups working on real problems". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  24. ↑ "U.S. civic tech, ten years in: Building on progress to tap civic tech's full potential". luminategroup.com. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  25. 1 2 food, Jenna Schroedel Marketing Intern at CitizenLab ~ Lover of all things; film; Away, Far (2020-10-09). "Trends for youth civic engagement: online, inclusive, and local". CitizenLab's Blog. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  26. ↑ "The Untapped Potential of Civic Technology". Giving Compass. 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  27. ↑ "Visions of Government in 2040: The Future of Civic Engagement | IBM Center for The Business of Government". www.businessofgovernment.org. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.