Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldTag: Format > reports - (102)
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Paper by Joy Aceron, 2019. This paper explains why and how a reform program that opened up spaces for participatory budgeting was ultimately unable to result in pro-citizen power shifts that transformed governance.
Leveraging AI for Democracy: Civic Innovation on the New Digital Playing Field
1025 F Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 200043 essays by Beth Kerley, Carl Miller, and Fernanda Campagnucci outline possible paths toward a prodemocratic vision for AI
Automating (In)Justice: An Adversarial Audit of RisCanvi
Catalonia (Spain)Eticas Foundation's adversarial audit of an AI-powered criminal justice tool, RisCanvi, that has been used in Catalonia since 2009 finds it "does not meet the required standards of reliability and fairness."
Open Government for Stronger Democracies
OECD, Rue André Pascal, Paris, FranceAn OECD global assessment of countries' implementation of its 2017 Recommendation on Open Government
Public Data Access Programs - A First Look
Washington, DCThe EU’s Digital Services Act mandates greater researcher data access from platforms; Mozilla and the National Conference on Citizenship investigated 19 platforms’ responses
Privacidad es seguridad
Lima, PeruEn los últimos quince años, los peruanos hemos renunciado a muchos aspectos de nuestra privacidad en nombre de la seguridad. ¿Ha valido la pena?
In the period between the beginning of 2021 and the middle of 2022, we investigated open-source digital infrastructures used by communities that are under the constant threat of violation of civil and environmental rights.
Delete Nothing
Colombo, Sri LankaDelete Nothing aims to document technology-related gender-based violence in Sri Lanka, particularly but not limited to the experiences of girls, women, and queer and trans people in Sri Lanka.
Guidance for Policymakers, Civil Society, and Development Cooperation
Our report, “A Fourth Wave of Open Data? Exploring the Spectrum of Scenarios for Open Data and Generative AI,” (May 2024) provides a new framework and recommendations to support open data providers and other interested parties in making open data “ready” for generative AI.
[W]e explore c.125 companies operating in the Responsible AI space
Sets out best practices and actions online platforms can take to implement more robust support for Human Rights Defenders under threat
Path to 2024 Polarization Report Series
United States of America (the)PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus on a different salient issue affecting voters and analyze public attitudes from our weekly public opinion poll.
Mozilla’s Elections Casebook
Mountain View, CA, USAScrutinizing what steps platforms have taken to protect election integrity globally
The State of Open Humanitarian Data 2024
Humanity Hub, Fluwelen Burgwal, The Hague, NetherlandsA ten-year anniversary retrospective on the Humanitarian Data Exchange, which was accessed by 1.4 million people in 230 countries to download 2.7 million open humanitarian datasets in 2023.
Exposing protection gaps in digital transformation programmes
This year we assess the AI readiness of 193 governments across the world. We are also introducing an interactive map to make our data more accessible!
Playbook: Government as a Platform
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA2019 report by Richard Pope
The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) data and publication "Illuminating Inequalities" released on 11 July 2019 shed light on the number of people experiencing poverty at regional, national and subnational levels, and reveal inequalities across countries and among the poor themselves.
State-level Digital Transformation Policy Scan: Executive Orders
Georgetown University, 3700 O St NW, Washington, DC 20057, United StatesIn Fall 2023, the Digital Service Network kicked off its digital transformation policy scan by documenting executive orders (EO) enacted since 2013 that shape the digital transformation of government across states and territories.
State of AI Report 2023
LondonRelevant section: Politics: Regulation of AI, its economic implications and the evolving geopolitics of AI.
Including key indicators of online violence escalation and how to systematically record digital threats
This publication showcases how governments and civic tech communities around the world can work together to build digital services and projects.
Building Trust in AI: A Landscape Analysis of Government AI Programs
Waterloo, ON, CanadaA critical review of the accuracy of countries' submissions to the OECD's AI Policy Observatory site, tracking national government AI programs
Encrypted Messaging Applications and Political Messaging: How They Work and Why Understanding Them is Important for Combating Global Disinformation
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USAThis report provides an overview of how various EMAs work, a review of popular EMAs and their notable features (LINE, Signal, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, and WeChat), and examples of how EMAs have been used for political manipulation
Mercenários Digitais
South AmericaBrasil: Investigação transnacional revela empresas de marketing político ligadas à extrema direita
A publicação visa colaborar na construção de estratégias de proteção, fomentando oficinas coletivas com defensoras e defensores de direitos humanos (DDHs), movimentos sociais e organizações da sociedade civil.
Trapped in a Web: The Exploitation of Personal Data in Hungary’s 2022 Elections
Hungary (Magyarország)The [Human Rights Watch] report finds that data collected by the state for administering public services, such as registering for the Covid vaccine, administering tax benefits, and mandatory membership in professional associations, was repurposed to spread Fidesz’s campaign messages.
How do you measure gifts of time, expertise and leadership? What indicators can you use to assess grassroots power building, organising and volunteer initiatives?
Chatbots in humanitarian contexts
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)Report by the British Red Cross on aid groups' rush to use chatbots, from a skeptical perspective
A Snapshot Of Artificial Intelligence Procurement Challenges
GovLab New York UniversityDiagnosing perceived and actual risks impeding responsible AI acquisition in government
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.
A report for lawmakers, governments and policymakers at national and European level, 2023
This [Canadian] report includes the following: Importance of ethics in AI and government, Understanding the impacts of AI on society, Balancing AI-driven efficiency with privacy and security concerns, and Cyber-security and digital trust.
Are We Together?
Ethiopia (Ityop'iya)The findings from our study are intended to provide insights to developers and designers to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of digital platforms from the perspective of language.
Growing & Sustaining African Civic Tech
South Africa (South Africa, Afrika-Borwa, Suid-Afrika)A Playbook for learning about funding and financing options for the African civic technology community.
A Brief but Actionable Primer for Founders
Every year, we track innovations and changes across the political tech space, recognizing the need to capture the developments in this fast-changing industry. This report focuses on the historic 2022 midterm cycle.
How Cities Make Software Together
Cornell TechA report by Written by Nneka Sobers and Dr. Anthony Townsend.
This white paper seeks to unpack the use of Indigenous or non-majority language in the existing digital landscape.
Sustaining and Scaling Civic and Government Technology
Washington, DCA report by International Republican Institute "synthesiz[ing] core challenges and lessons learned from practitioners, funders and government to help answer the questions of why civic and govtech initiatives struggle long term and what can be done about it."
Building a Culture of Innovation in Government
United States of America (the)This brief is the compilation of the findings from of a series of workshops on creating a vision for how our [US] government can build and foster a culture of innovation over the next 20 years.
Public Interest Technology University Network: Understanding the State of the Field in 2021
Boston UniversityThis report from Katharine Lusk and Azer Bestravos of Boston University evaluates of the state of the field across the 43 academic institutions that make up the Public Interest Technology University Network as of the summer of 2021, providing insight into the ways in which PIT-UN members are investing in its five priority areas, and sheds light on the state of the field more generally.
A report: How can stories help us change systems?
Beyond Borders: Satellite Applications for Humanitarian Emergencies
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)A report by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub
Filling the Progressive TikTok Gap
Washington, DCAfter the 2022 midterms, the Cooperative Impact Lab published initial findings for the Digital Innovation Fund, telling the story of how, in just four months, we stood up and administered one of the most extensive research-grant programs focused on TikTok’s uses for progressive politics and social good.
Audible reckoning: How top political podcasters spread unsubstantiated and false claims
Washington, DCBrookings report: Using a combination of analytical methods – including natural language processing, machine learning, and manual classifying – this research provided the first overarching assessment of the role that popular political podcasting plays in spreading unsubstantiated and false claims.
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