Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldThe Tech > Advocacy tech > Watchdogging and transparency - (335)
Technologies that seek to provide greater visibility to the activities of governments, corporations, or individuals in power and allow others to monitor them.
Suggested reading:
- Technology is not a quick fix solution for corruption, by Melissa Tsungai Zisengwe. She writes from a South African perspective but the takeaways are broadly applicable to the whole genre of anti-corruption tech. (2020)
- In The Future of Promise Tracking Jordan Urban and Adam Feldman, co-founders of govtracker.co.uk, explain what promise trackers are and how to build a meaningful one. (2018)
- Which Promises Actually Matter? Election Pledge Centrality and Promissory Representation is a published research paper that finds that simply evaluating elected officials on the fulfillment of every miscellaneous promise made while campaigning isn’t helpful, because voters weigh certain promises as more central to the campaign than others. The authors suggest weighting promise centrality when evaluating the campaign’s fidelity. By Jonathan Mellon, Christopher Prosser, Jordan Urban, and Adam Feldman. (2018)
- Jameela Raymond of Transparency International discusses the Impacts of anti-corruption pledge trackers at The Impacts of Civic Tech Conference. (2018)
Showing 335 Results
Promise Tracker is a tool designed to help journalists and civil society watchdogs track campaign/promises/pledges by government officials
The Panama Papers is an unprecedented investigation that reveals the offshore links of some of the globe’s most prominent figures.
Lighthouse Reports
UtrechtPioneering Collaborative Journalism
Fundación Multitudes
ChileAmpliamos los espacios de participación ciudadana en la toma de decisiones.
Watchdog
Batticaloa, Sri LankaWatchdog is a multidisciplinary team of factcheckers, journalists, researchers and software engineers. We hunt hoaxes and misinformation, investigate matters of public welfare, and build software tools that help operations like ours.
Detektor Media
Ukraine (Ukrayina)Media Detector is a non-governmental organization established by Ukrainian journalists in January 2004.
PubliElectoral
Buenos Aires, ArgentinaPubliElectoral is a technological tool of social interest that allows the collection of information related to electoral advertising on social networks without affecting the privacy of citizen users.
Polétika República Dominicana
C. Josefa Perdomo 160 Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicPolétika República Dominicana is a group of civil society organizations and movements that work in different areas, including: health, housing and habitat, taxation, citizen security, transparency, childhood and adolescence, gender, and municipality.
Open & Disclose
South Africa (South Africa, Afrika-Borwa, Suid-Afrika)Open & Disclose aims to provide a platform for media organisations, journalists, columnists, and commentators to make public their interests, with the aim of strengthening institutional credibility, accountability, transparency, and trustworthiness.
Media Matters for Pakistan
PakistanMedia Matters for Pakistan is a web based initiative, designed to act as an informal watchdog over the mainstream media in Pakistan.
Eltették
Hungary (Magyarország)An interactive map to show the billions worth of properties that went from state-owned to privately owned in recent years, together with K Monitor
Open Gov Week
Washington, DCThis year, we want to do a bit more. In addition to events, we’re collecting and sharing how the open government movement – even in challenging times – is aligned and how our stories can be a bright spot for the world.
Gong
GONG, Main Square 15/IV, Zagreb,Gong is a civic megaphone that hinders corruption and builds a more democratic, just and equal society.
Ad Observer
New York University, New York, NY, USAPolitical campaigns spend a lot of money to reach voters on Facebook. Are they telling the truth? Are they saying different things to different people? Help hold them accountable by installing our browser plugin, which sends us the ads you see on Facebook.
Anti-Corruption Virtual Hackathon 2021 in Thailand
Africa’s first investigative environmental journalism unit, which combines traditional investigative reporting with data analysis and geo-mapping to expose offenses and track crime syndicates
@LeadershipFlack
Washington, DCThis bot is a project of @DemandProgress that tweets a round up of House and Senate leadership press releases.
Fiquem Sabendo
Brazil (Brasil)Fiquem Sabendo é uma organização sem fins lucrativos especializada noacesso a informações públicas
Explore Facebook and Instagram Political Ads
Spotlight on Corruption
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)Spotlight on Corruption works to end corruption within the UK and wherever the UK has influence · We track how the UK enforces its anti-corruption laws
@EveryCRSReport
Washington, DCTwitter bot making US Congressional Research Service reports publicly available to all. By Demand Progress.
Parliamentary Network Africa
GE185-7537 BOHYE ROAD (ECOWAS HIGHWAY), NEW ASHONGMAN ESTATE, ACCRA GHANAParliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica) is a convenor and connector of civil society parliamentary monitoring organizations and journalists towards promoting Open Parliaments across Africa.
Act Hub Africa
Basorun Rd, 200285, Ibadan, NigeriaAct Hub Africa is a civic-tech NGO that works to promote good governance, democracy, ensure openness and transparency in the local governments by making their fiscal data available in a simplified, easy to understand form and engage people in the local government areas on how to use them in engaging their political officeholders
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Council Data Project
Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaTransparency and accessibility in council action; videos, transcripts, voting records, and legislation -- all searchable under a single website.
Xnet Institute For Democratic Digitalisation
Barcelona, SpainAn activist project working and proposing advanced solutions in fields related to digital rights and democracy
EU Whistleblowing Monitor
EuropeThe EU Whistleblowing Monitor was created by the Whistleblowing International Network to track the progress of transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing across all 27 Member States over the next 18 months.
Individuos que apoyan las actividades estratégicas de la Coalición
ENCO (European Network of Corporate Observatories) is a network of European civic and media organisations dedicated to investigating corporations and corporate power.
Whistleblowing International Network
ScotlandWIN connects and strengthens civil society organisations that defend and support whistleblowers.
Political Watch
Avda. Cardenal Herrera Oria 63, 3º Izda - 28034, Madrid SpainEL THINK-AND-DO TANK de la Fundación Salvador Soler
Observatorio Joven de Inclumplimiento Político (OJITO)
Madrid (Spain)Spanish promise tracker holding government and political parties to account
¿Qué Pasó Con
Spain (España)Vigilamos el cumplimiento que el Gobierno hace de las iniciativas de orientación política aprobadas por el Parlamento en temas de desarrollo y lucha contra la pobreza
An algorithm that attempts to analyze which information the YouTube algorithm is showing to people.
A qué precio?
Buenos Aires, ArgentinaEste observatorio de compras públicas en Salud recopila datos sobre los precios que pagan diferentes organismos estatales por medicamentos para permitir su análisis y transparentar la información gubernamental.
Algorithm Watch is a non-profit research and advocacy organization committed to evaluating and shedding light on algorithmic decision-making processes
Ad Watch
Arizona, USAad.watch breaks open the machine of political advertisements on Facebook and Instagram with data of more than 150 parties in 34 countries.
AlaveteliCon
Oslo, NorwayA Freedom of Information conference hosted by mySociety
Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V.
Schlesische Str 6, 10997 Berlin, Germany
WhoWasInCommand
Columbia University, New York, NY, USAWhoWasInCommand is our free to use, public database of military, police and other security and defense force units.
Corruption Watch
South Africa (South Africa, Afrika-Borwa, Suid-Afrika)Corruption Watch is a Transparency International chapter working to fight corruption in South Africa
TI Lietuvos Skyrius (Transparency International Lithuania)
Didzioji str.5-402, 01128, Vilnius, LithuaniaSkaidresnės Lietuvos link! Esame viešosios politikos organizacija, kurios tikslas – įgyvendinti skaidrumo bei antikorupcines iniciatyvas.
By developing and equipping a global network of investigative journalists and publishing their stories, OCCRP exposes crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account.
Clooney Foundation for Justice
United States of America (the)By providing a neutral report of what happens in court, trial monitors can help ensure that rights are respected and abuses exposed.
Accountability Lab is a global translocal network that makes governance work for people by supporting active citizens, responsible leaders and accountable institutions. Our goal is a world in which resources are used wisely, decisions benefit everyone fairly, and people lead secure lives.
Security Force Monitor
Columbia University, New York, NY, USAWe are a non-profit research group that analyzes thousands of public records to create a simple searchable database of the commanders and the command structures, locations, and areas of operations of security force units and investigate their potential connections to alleged human rights violations.
g0v Taiwan
Taiwan (T'ai-wan)Founded in Taiwan, "g0v" (gov-zero) is a decentralised civic tech community with information transparency, open results and open cooperation as its core values. g0v engages in public affairs by drawing from the grassroot power of the community.
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Civic Tech Field Guide