3. Background
• There is a growing global movement that is using technology
for public good. In many cities this is being manifested
through a variety of Civic Tech initiatives.
• In Canada, vibrant Civic Tech communities have been
launched in Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton.
• Even though Calgary has all of the components that are
critical to the success of Civic Tech, a focused initiative has yet
to emerge.
• The purpose of the this gathering is to explore the potential
for the formation of a Civic Tech community in Calgary.
4. Definitions
• Technology that enables greater participation in government or
otherwise assists government in delivering citizen services and
strengthening ties with the public.
• Tools or processes that people as individuals or groups may use
for public good and that betters the lives of the many, not just
the few.
• Technology projects involving intentional collaboration between
technologists, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and nonprofit
employees to engage the public or solve civic problems.
• Use of data, technology and connectivity to address challenges
that citizens are facing and to improve the services that
governments are delivering.
5. Categories of Civic Tech
• Citizen to Citizen (C2C): Technology that improves citizen
mobilization or improves connections between citizens
• Citizen to Government (C2G): Technology that improves the
frequency or quality of interaction between citizens and
government
• Government Technology (Govtech): Innovative technology
solutions that make government more efficient and effective
at service delivery
Engines of Change: What Civic Tech Can Learn From Social Movements
9. WHAT IS CIVIC TECH: TOWARD FINALIZING A
BASIC FRAMEWORK SO THAT WE CAN MOVE
ON WITH IT ALREADY
MICAH SIFRY, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CIVIC HALL
MATT STEMPECK, DIRECTOR OF CIVIC TECHNOLOGY, MICROSOFT
ERIN SIMPSON, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CIVIC HALL LABS
10. CIVIC TECH IS THE USE
OF TECHNOLOGY FOR
THE PUBLIC GOOD
TOPLINE DEFINITION
11. RE THE PUBLIC GOOD:
IT IS CULTURALLY AND HISTORICALLY SUBJECTIVE.
WE USE PUBLIC TO DISTINGUISH FROM PERSONAL AND PRIVATE.
“PUBLIC GOOD” DEALS WITH SHARED PUBLIC CHALLENGES.
12. COMMON FUNCTIONS
• Crowdfunding platforms
• Benefit navigation tools
• Campaign organizing platforms
• Check-in tools
• Constituent to Government
communication tools
• Crowdsourced data collection
• Data schemas and standards
• Data Visualization tools and
Platforms
• Event organizing tools
• Freedom of Information tools
• Government to constituent
communications
• Group communication tools
• Group decision-making tools
• Ideation tools
• Issue reporting platforms
• Legislation engagement platforms
• Mapping platforms
• Marketplaces and Clearinghouses
• Neighborhood forums
• Online Petition sites
• Open data publishing platforms
• Opinion matching platforms
• Resource matching/sharing sites
• Sensors
• Service alerts
• Watchdogging and Transparency
projects
13. BUT ISN’T CIVIC TECH MORE THAN JUST
TECH?
It’s, even more importantly, the people and how they do things together.
14. COMMON SOCIAL PROCESSES
CONVENE
Civic hacking meetups
Backchannels
Roundtables
Working Groups
Physical gathering places, hubs
Tech translators & intermediaries
Talent Pipeline
Peer networks
Partner networks
Datapalooza
Conferences
INFORM
Journalism, books, podcasts,
blogs
Educational programs and
courses
Online Forums
Research Centers and
Projects
Digital Literacy groups
Workshops
Data analysis for public good
BUILD
Innovation teams, Labs
Open source projects
Social impact design groups
Foundation initiatives
Accelerators
Incubators
Tech companies with civic teams
Behavioral economics programs
Open governance initiatives
Data sourcing
Civic & social good hackathons
Civic tech competitions
15. AGITATE
Politics (electoral + activism),
campaigns
Artistic interventions
Investigative journalism
CODIFY
Field Definition and
Governance
Playbooks and design
principles
Toolkits
SUPPORT
Accelerate public sector work
Fellowship programs
COMMON SOCIAL PROCESSES
16. WAYS TO ORGANIZE
Degree of Change
Conformist
Reformist
Transformist
Who Pays (Customer)
Government
Philanthropy
Private
Who Uses (User)
Gov
Organization
Individual
How Civic
Civic Feature
Civic Product
Civic Externality
17.
18. Citizens and
Communities /
Social
Innovation /
Civil Society
Technology
Industry and
Alliances /
Smart Cities /
Regional
Partnerships
City of Calgary /
Digital Strategy /
Open Gov-Data-City
Civic Innovation /
Gov Tech & Services
Entrepreneurs
and Startups /
Research and
Education /
Knowledge
Mobilization
CIVIC TECH COMMUNITY
Calgary Civic Tech Ecosystem
Hinweis der Redaktion
MICAH
We’re presenting these four things to you today.
Micah introduces Matt and Erin
Micah: Been tracking this for dozen + years, PDF, Civic Hall, etc.
Matt: representing cross-sector experience of the fields converged into civic tech
Erin: Microsoft, thesis on digital equity and community institutions, White House, CGI and now Labs
-The point of this definition is to communicate what we do externally. We would like to propose that when someone asks you in the elevator, you can answer with this.
-It's intentionally broad - we see civic tech as an umbrella term which captures and includes subcategories like gov tech
-Not bound to government--depending on context, the best thing for the common good might not be working with your government--civic tech is bigger than that
IT IS CULTURALLY AND HISTORICALLY SUBJECTIVE.
WE USE PUBLIC TO DISTINGUISH FROM PERSONAL AND PRIVATE.
“PUBLIC GOOD” DEALS WITH SHARED PUBLIC CHALLENGES.
Erin: Our methodology took the approach of going from the specific to the general: we looked at what tools and companies actually existed and then worked to group them by technical function. We chose to stay out of domains -- like ed tech, or smart cities -- and instead focus on what the technology enables, making most of these categories domain agnostic. .
So you’re seeing here our list of common functions, each identified through analysis of a couple of hundred civic tech tools and companies.
These are not mutually exclusive or collectively exhaustive. Part of our purpose in being here today is to gather additional data from you and get your criticisms on our work in order to improve it.
Now, we’re going to go through and talk about three categories that we think are representative. We didn’t pick these out for any critically important reason, there are dozens of verticals to populate, we just want to show you how it works.
BUT ISN’T CIVIC TECH MORE THAN THE TOOLS AND PLATFORMS AND COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS WHO MAKE THEM?
OF COURSE.
In doing this work, we realize that civic tech ECOSYSTEM is not just about new technology. It is the social processes on top of the technologies that are key to driving impact in civic tech. So we inventoried dozens of the social processes, from the new class of hackathons and open source projects to time-honored traditions like gathering in shared spaces, that people engage in
Our shorthand for this is social processes
Which are how people employ the tech to actually drive the impact
Erin: We view this work as a prerequisite to asking more critical research questions. Thus, we’ve also developed a handful of suggested horizontal ways to organize the field that, together with our categories, can be particularly useful to researchers, funders, and wonks seeking to understand the space.
Categorizing civic tech projects horizontally across the ecosystem by such meta-questions as “who pays” or “what degree of change are they seeking” may allow us to see the broader patterns in the forest, rather than the individual trees. It can also help a newcomer--for example, if it turns out that of the many sites around the world devoted to legislative transparency, 90% are funded by foundations, if you are thinking of starting one in your country, you probably want to make sure you have foundation support.
Essentially, these help us think about the question “to what end?” How much change are we asking for? Who is it for? And how do we fund it?