Civic Tech Field Guide

Hearken's Engagement Management System

Hearken’s Engagement Management System empowers organizations to generate actionable insights from the public to create more relevant, representative and original content.

Hearken Switchboard

Hearken’s Community Management System, Switchboard, connects members of your community with one another so they can ask for help and offer opportunities in a safe, trusted environment.

Hearken

Chicago, IL

Hearken's consulting and engagement platforms help newsrooms, companies, and organizations engage their audience or community.

HearFromYourMP

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

It provided an easy way for constituents to sign up to hear from their MPs, and a simple online forum for discussion.

Heartificial Intelligence

Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines

books

Making Voices Heard in the Regulatory Process (US OMB)

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC, USA

Today, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is releasing guidance detailing new steps that Federal agencies should take to make it easier for interested members of the public to voice their views in the regulatory process.

NuEar Hearing Aids

The hearing aid that tracks body and brain health.

Deaf

Hardware

Right To Be (formerly Heartmob)

Join the movement to end online harassment! We’re fighting fire with water, and working step by step to assist people facing harassment, educate communities, and stop harassment online.

BriteHeart

41 Peabody Street, Nashville, TN

#getcivic

Trial Monitoring of Corruption Cases

Nigeria

The trial monitoring of corruption cases program uses tech tools to improve the justice sector by making the workings of the judiciary easier to understand and scrutinize.

Voice of the People's Policymaking Simulations

United States of America (the)

Voice Of the People (VOP) is a nonpartisan organization working to re-anchor our democracy in its founding principles by giving ‘We the People’ a greater and more effective voice in government.

Policy simulators

Hack The Press

London

Hack The Press is a movement. We're not satisfied by the current situation of owned media, and we've taken Michael Jackson's song "Man In The Mirror" to heart.

Demos

London

Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think tank. We put people at the heart of policy-making to create bold ideas and a more collaborative democracy.

Research and policy centers

Fatima

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

Fatima's mission is for every person in the world to have their voice heard, while ensuring a safe, secure, and ethical research experience.

Evidence House

10 Downing Street

Evidence House is a Downing Street-led initiative, working with collaborators including ONS Data Science Campus, Evaluation Task Force, Modernisation and Reform Unit, Go Science and National Situation Centre.

U.S. Public Assembly on High Risk Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Syracuse, NY

The AI Assembly is the first national deliberative event on AI in the United States and represents a significant step toward understanding public sentiment on AI-related issues and shaping the conversation around the role of AI systems in society, with a focus on transparency, accountability, and responsible use.

Gov.UK Incubator for Artificial Intelligence

10 Downing Street

The [UK] Government is establishing an elite team of highly empowered technical experts at the heart of government. Their mission is to help departments harness the potential of AI to improve lives and the delivery of public services.

Thomson Reuters Foundation journalism program

Our global editorial team of almost 50 journalists and about 300 freelancers covers the world’s under-reported stories at the heart of aid, development, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, climate change and social innovation. We make our stories available free of charge to hundreds of smaller media outlets and non-government organisations around the world.

Elker

Sydney NSW, Australia

Elker is an anonymous reporting platform that allows people to speak up about workplace issues such as harassment, discrimination, and misconduct.

Civitates

Brussels

Civitates provides funding for civil society actors to come together, revitalise public discourse, and ensure that all voices are heard. Because we need a strong civil society to shape vibrant and open European democracies that work for all.

State of Digital Inequity

The report is based on a survey of 7,500+ civil society organizations (CSOs) from 136 countries who answered questions about the barriers that they, and the communities they serve, face when it comes to digital equity.

The Lebanon Press Elections Edition

Beirut

The AnNahar newspaper used its paper and ink to provide election ballots instead

2023 Webby Awards

Newspeak House Residency

Newspeak House, Bethnal Green Road, London, UK

At the heart of Newspeak House is its residential programme, running since 2015. Seven residents spend a year immersed in these communities, enjoying the chance to meet thousands of people and attend events held on their doorstep.

Storytelling for Systems Change

A report: How can stories help us change systems?

reports

Advancing Democracy Fellowship

United States of America (the)

This joint initiative from Hearken, Solutions Journalism Network and Trusting News will equip newsroom-based journalists to transform their coverage of democracy through solutions-focused reporting that builds trust and avoids polarization.

Talk to Loop

The Hague, Netherlands

Loop’s feedback platform is revolutionising accountability in humanitarian aid and development by providing a space for accessible feedback, reliable complaints mechanisms and safe reporting of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH).

Electronic Arts Accessibility Patent Pledge

The gaming giant is making its accessibility-related patents royalty-free

Reduced inequalities

Troll-o-meter

Trolling, or social media behavior that is uncivil and provocative is one of the most potent sources of political polarization today. You may have heard the expression, "don't feed the trolls," but how do you know if you are interacting with one? Answer as many of the questions you can about another social media user below, and our models will create a prediction about the likelihood that they are a political troll (an extremist who engages in uncivil behavior designed to antagonize the other side).

harassment

Democracy Technologies

Vienna

A magazine established to provide people working in politics and the industry of Democracy Technologies with in-depth information about new developments and technologies in the field of digital participation and deliberation, electronic voting, and other digital tools that improve political organisations.

Wikirumours

Canada

WikiRumours is a web-based database which enables geographically distributed teams to collaborate asynchronously on monitoring, verifying, and countering the spread of harmful rumours and misinformation.

Undebates

United States of America (the)

Undebates web-based technology allows candidates to self-record and upload their content simply by clicking a link and following on-screen instructions.

YAI Center for Innovation and Engagement

New York City, NY, USA

YAI’s Center for Innovation and Engagement understands how technology can help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities better participate in their community.

Data Playbook V1

Improve your team's data knowledge and skills

Preptrack

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

Volunteer part-time, full async and remote to contribute to Preptrack, the app that supports PrEP users. PrEP is a medicine that eliminates the risk of HIV when taken correctly.

Urbanpinion

Eastern Europe

Urbanpinion is a citizen engagement platform that lets city government, community leaders, architects and activists easily set up a landing with an interactive map to collect citizens suggestions, receive analytics based on collected data and make later on right decisions for city development.

News Leaders Association Awards

Reynolds Journalism Institute

RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM

OwlFactor

OwlFactor automatically calculates the quality of an article based on four factors

Newscheck

India

Strengthening our resolve to support the fight against misinformation in India, Internews is delighted to announce that in partnership with DataLEADS and with the support of Google.org, we will be launching a new news literacy project in India aimed at empowering the general public by helping them learn how to critically assess the information they see online and navigate news.

Media LIT

EDx course on media literacy. It helps us understand, analyze and create media.

Iffy Quotient

University of Michigan, South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

The Iffy Quotient is a metric for how much content from “Iffy” sites has been amplified on Facebook and Twitter.

Copia Gaming

Copia Gaming is our ongoing initiative to design and facilitate a variety of games that explore serious and important subjects.

On Our Radar

We are a specialist group of journalists, technologists, digital storytellers and development practitioners. We work together to tackle voicelessness, surfacing stories from unheard groups worldwide.

Media

‎Polliticly

In ever changing times, it is important for every citizen to have their voice heard. Polliticly is the app that lets you find your voice by tailoring polls and questions that relate to pressing issues in your community and then sends results of those polls to your local elected officials.

apps

Feminist AI

Feminist.AI works to put technology into the hands of makers, researchers, thinkers and learners to amplify unheard voices and create more accessible AI for all.

Solar Ear

São Paulo

Solar Ear manufactures low cost, solar rechargeable and environment friendly hearing aids so you can hear perfectly again. Our products are manufactured by deaf workers with high quality components. FIND YOUR HEARING AID