Civic Tech Field Guide

UK official statistics on homelessness: comparisons, processes and definitions

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

This tool will help you to compare official statistics on homelessness and rough sleeping across the UK, with information provided on each of the four countries.

homelessness

Purple Air

110 West 13800 South, Draper, UT 84020, USA

A low cost air quality sensor network providing real time measurement of air quality on a public map.

air quality

Politifact

Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.

China Green Horizon

China (Zhong Guo)

China Green Horizon is a project between Beijing’s municipal government and IBM Research to improve the accuracy of air quality assessments.

TechSoup Global

However you do good in the world, there's something for you at TechSoup.

Calgary's noise-sensing network

Calgary, AB, Canada

Calgary’s LoRaWAN — a long-range, low power digital wireless network — sensors will be used to categorize noises like gun shots, trains, construction and road noise through the work of a government partnership.

cities
noise

Baobab Law

South Africa (South Africa, Afrika-Borwa, Suid-Afrika)

Baobab.law attempts to remove barriers to legal assistance by providing DIY legal solutions in the form of videotutorials. Videos are recorded with professional lawyers, and are available in multiple languages.

Psiphon

Canada

Psiphon is a free and open-source internet censorship circumvention tool that uses a combination of secure communication and obfuscation technologies, providing open access to the internet for millions of citizens around the world.

apps

GovQA Public Records Management

900 South Frontage Road, Woodridge, IL 60517, USA

Creating a system that makes it easy to store, manage, and search for public records.

Human Rights Heroes & Villains

New York City

Every year, Access Now celebrates the heroes of human rights in the digital age, and we’re looking for nominations!

human rights

Astraea Foundation CommsLabs

Astraea’s CommsLabs is a radical global movement-building initiative that equips LGBTQI activists with the tools, skills and knowledge they need to securely organize and advocate in online spaces.

Otwarte dane Gdynia

Gdynia, Poland

Open government data portal

The Civic Data Design Lab

MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

“Big data” will not change the world unless it is collected and synthesized into tools that have a public benefit.

ResistX protest SMS alerts

Sign up to have your daily NYC protest update texted and emailed to you.

StadtRat Monitor Leipzig

Germany (Deutschland)

National Lottery Community Fund

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes over £600m a year to communities across the UK, raised by players of The National Lottery

The Sentry

1420 K Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20005, USA

The Sentry is an investigative and policy team that follows the dirty money connected to African war criminals and transnational war profiteers and seeks to shut those benefiting from violence out of the international financial system.

Human Services Data Specification (HSDS)

Washington, DC

HSDS is designed to support the publication of open, interoperable community resource directory data.

IdeaScale

Berkeley

IdeaScale is the leading innovation management software platform for the enterprise, government, and education. Gather ideas and implement them.

Community Lab at Open Tech Fund

2025 M Street Northwest, Downtown, Washington, DC 20036, USA

The Community Lab provides services that empower the community to become stronger and vibrant by focusing on cultivating deeper trust relationships, improving knowledge share and collaboration, and supporting and diversifying the next generation of leaders.

Sara and Evan Williams Foundation

Arizona Eviction Help

Arizona

Arizona Eviction Help makes it easier for tenants to learn about eviction hearings, identify potential defenses to use and create court documents to use.

housing

Integrity Action

The Leather Market, London

Citizens Monitor. Everyone wins. We empower citizens to demand integrity from the institutions they rely on.

IHELPYOU.app

Poland (Polska)

Inspired by the help that people give each other during hard times, we created an application that will allow anyone in need to find help in their daily duties.

BetaNYC Slam

New York City

SLA Mapper (SLAM) is a tool that aggregates data that community boards often have to gather in order to review liquor license applications and sidewalk cafe applications. Displaying this information in a unified view saves community boards considerable time and resources.

Data visualization

PoliEngine

621 Northwest 12th Avenue, Gainesville, FL, USA

Website builder for political candidates and campaigns

Connected Development (CODE)

Abuja, Nigeria

We are building the largest social accountability movement, empowering marginalized communities in Africa.

Tella

Washington, DC

Tella is a secure documentation app for Android, making it easier and safer to produce verifiable evidence and collect data in challenging environments

apps

The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto

Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON, Canada

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.