Civic Tech Field Guide

Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast

Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA, USA

The Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast brings you the latest research, insights, and ideas on how nonviolent action can — or sometimes fails — to transform injustice.

podcasts

AI and Democracy Movements Project

Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA, USA

The AI and Democracy Movements Project explores the impacts of AI on the strategy, operations, and outcomes of pro-democratic social movements.

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA, USA

Research and resources for city leaders to expand their problem-solving capacity, build effective city hall organizations, and improve outcomes for residents around the world

Academic programs

Negative Vote and Balanced Ballot

California

Giving voters the option to vote NO in all elections can improve all democracies

The 74

United States of America (the)

The 74 is a nonprofit news organization covering America’s education system from early childhood through college and career.

Quality education

Wiki Education

Chico, California

Wiki Education engages students and academics to improve Wikipedia

Humankind

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Agency For Urban Change

Grants Enablement and Monitoring System (GEMS)

212 W Main Street Durham, NC 27701

Prudence B2B's Grants Management Software streamlines the grant management process with real-time tracking, detailed reporting, and robust compliance features.

Federal Environmental Web Tracker

United States of America (the)

EDGI’s website monitoring team is monitoring thousands of federal government webpages to track changes under the Trump administration.

Watchdogging and transparency

Sitra

Finland (Suomi)

Tulevaisuustalona tehtävämme on edistää Suomen hyvinvointia ja vauhdittaa talouden kasvua luonnon kantokyvyn rajoissa. Luotaamme tulevaa, tuotamme innovaatioita ja uudistamme yhteiskuntaa.

Civic Match

United States of America (the)

Connecting top public sector talent with essential local government jobs.

Project 2025

whatsmeow

Finland (Suomi)

whatsmeow is a Go library for the WhatsApp web multidevice API.

Porticus

Amsterdam

Since 1995, we've coordinated the philanthropic endeavours founded by the Brenninkmeijer family business owners, continuing a tradition of social engagement stretching back as far as 1841.

How can civic tech help improve government service delivery?

Ontario

Ever wonder, “How can civic tech help improve government service delivery?” If so, check out this new research from the Canadian Digital Service! It includes 5 case studies of partnerships between the Canadian government and civic tech groups, plus tools to assess if civic tech might be a good partner for a government initiative. Find it here: https://digital.canada.ca/2025/01/23/how-can-civic-tech-help-improve-government-service-delivery/

reports

App CieID - Carta di Identità Elettronica (CIE)

Rome

Gestisci la tua identità digitale e accedi velocemente ai servizi online con l’app CieID.

apps

Asurtec

Ontario

Your Trusted IT Partner for Community Health & Social Services

We the Builders

Washington, DC

Here, you'll find stories from real government employees: How we save you time and money, how we protect your personal information, and how DOGE's dangerous dismantling of government technology puts you at risk.

Project 2025

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

General purpose open source tools

Make It Fair campaign

London

The UK news industry is calling on the government to ensure creatives are rewarded properly so as to ensure a sustainable future for AI and the creative industries.

Stop AI theft

Mentimeter

Turn presentations into conversations with interactive polls that engage meetings and classrooms.

commercial

Graze.social is a social media platform that allows users to create and customize their own personalized feeds, including community feeds, hobby-specific feeds, and more. It offers features like painless editing, social graph control, content moderation,

Graze

The content discusses the need to redefine and shift the production of AI systems away from the hegemonic capitalist model towards more disruptive, inclusive, and decentralized models that challenge the dominant logic of an 'AI arms race'. It identifies 2

The content discusses the need to redefine and shift the production of AI systems away from the hegemonic capitalist model towards more disruptive, inclusive, and decentralized models that challenge the dominant logic of an 'AI arms race'

This report investigates the impact of platform design on online violence against women and girls (VAWG). It aims to understand how design features can enable online VAWG, how existing safety approaches can protect against the risk, and potential new desi

This report investigates the impact of platform design on online violence against women and girls (VAWG)

United Kingdom (government)

Picto World is a platform that allows users to create and share visual content, such as infographics and data visualizations. The platform provides tools and templates to help users create professional-looking visuals without the need for design expertise

Picto World is a platform that allows users to create and share visual content, such as infographics and data visualizations

Bridging Dictionary

MIT Media Lab

[A] dynamic prototype from MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication that identifies how words common in American political discourse are used differently across the political divide

This content discusses the importance of data stewardship in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), exploring its diverse manifestations and emerging relevance. It also highlights the need for enhancing access to and sharing of data and AI models to unl

This content discusses the importance of data stewardship in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), exploring its diverse manifestations and emerging relevance

Aphantasia is a condition where individuals are unable to voluntarily generate mental images. It is a relatively new area of research, and the causes and implications of this phenomenon are still being explored.

Aphantasia is a condition where individuals are unable to voluntarily generate mental images

This paper proposes a model called Edisum that can generate useful edit summaries for Wikipedia edits at scale. The model is trained on a curated mix of human and synthetic data to overcome the challenges of mixed-quality training data and efficiency requ

This paper proposes a model called Edisum that can generate useful edit summaries for Wikipedia edits at scale

The Surveillance Self-Defense guide from the Electronic Frontier Foundation provides expert tips, tools, and how-to's for safer online communications and protecting against online spying. It covers a range of topics including encryption, password security

The Surveillance Self-Defense guide from the Electronic Frontier Foundation provides expert tips, tools, and how-to's for safer online communications and protecting against online spying

This paper presents a novel approach for generating high-quality 3D human poses from 2D keypoints using a deep neural network. The proposed method outperforms existing state-of-the-art techniques on several benchmark datasets, demonstrating its effectiven

This paper presents a novel approach for generating high-quality 3D human poses from 2D keypoints using a deep neural network

The Mind Hacks, Electric Twin Hackathon challenges participants to apply machine learning to real-world problems across various industry tracks, including trafficking, food waste, education, and housing. The event features speeches from industry leaders,

The Mind Hacks, Electric Twin Hackathon challenges participants to apply machine learning to real-world problems across various industry tracks, including trafficking, food waste, education, and housing

Icebreaker One

Icebreaker One is a non-profit organization that works on data sharing and sustainability, with the mission of making data work harder to deliver net-zero

The Public Sector Frameworks Report

The 2025 Public Sector Frameworks Report provides a comprehensive overview of how framework agreements are being used across the UK public sector, covering central government, local government, NHS, and education

Melbourne Urban Forest Visual

Melbourne VIC, Australia

People from around the world are sending emails to trees in Melbourne, expressing their love, admiration, and curiosity about the trees

trees

Data visualization

Chore Wheel is a software platform designed to simplify the management of shared living spaces, such as coliving communities, casual roommates, and cohabitating partners. It provides tools for fairly distributing chores, promoting mutual accountability, a

Chore Wheel is a software platform designed to simplify the management of shared living spaces, such as coliving communities, casual roommates, and cohabitating partners

Bonfire Networks

Bonfire is an open-source toolkit for building and running federated digital spaces, designed to enable communities to take control over their features, data, and digital environment

The author is separating their work into two distinct projects - the Social Work Campfire, a 2-minute daily way for social workers to reconnect with their profession, and their work on showcasing use cases for AI in children's social care. The author is f

The author is separating their work into two distinct projects - the Social Work Campfire, a 2-minute daily way for social workers to reconnect with their profession, and their work on showcasing use cases for AI in children's social care

Common Knowledge is a platform that enables users to create and share knowledge resources. The website requires JavaScript to function properly.

Common Knowledge is a platform that enables users to create and share knowledge resources

Pickle is an AI-powered digital double that can be used in video calls to create a consistent and polished appearance. It captures the user's best look and allows them to easily switch between different layers or components during the call.

Pickle is an AI-powered digital double that can be used in video calls to create a consistent and polished appearance

TextBankr is a web application that requires JavaScript to function. It appears to be a tool or platform related to text-based tasks or processing.

TextBankr is a web application that requires JavaScript to function

Granola is an AI-powered notepad that transcribes and enhances meeting notes, allowing users to easily share and collaborate on meeting content. It offers customizable templates and integrates with various platforms to streamline the meeting note-taking p

Granola is an AI-powered notepad that transcribes and enhances meeting notes, allowing users to easily share and collaborate on meeting content

Automating School Surveillance: How Student Vape Detection Technologies Threaten to Expand the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Minnesota and Beyond

Minneapolis

Report by Ending Youth Surveillance and NOTICE Coalition published November 2024

Twin Cities Innovation Alliance

Minneapolis

Our mission is to build and develop a problem-solving ecosystem fueled by a critical mass of diverse, highly engaged residents, policymakers, and entrepreneurs made up of Black Indigenous and People of Color, in addition to other marginalized groups traditionally identified as the end-users and consumers of innovation and design, and transforming them into the innovators, purveyors, and beneficiaries.

Low-tech Magazine is a solar-powered website that explores low-tech solutions to high-tech problems. The website covers a range of topics, including how to build an electrically heated table, the history of public bathhouses, and the use of plastic waste

Low-tech Magazine is a solar-powered website that explores low-tech solutions to high-tech problems

Shuffled is a weekly newsletter that provides updates on political comings and goings around the world. The content covers a range of political events and changes happening during the given time period.

Shuffled is a weekly newsletter that provides updates on political comings and goings around the world

LawtechUK is a Ministry of Justice-backed initiative dedicated to driving digital transformation in the UK legal sector. It aims to increase innovation and adoption of lawtech, support the growth of the lawtech sector, and enable English and Welsh law and

LawtechUK is a Ministry of Justice-backed initiative dedicated to driving digital transformation in the UK legal sector

OpenAI, the tech company behind ChatGPT, has undergone its first-ever rebrand, introducing a new typeface, wordmark, symbol, and color palette to unify the visual identity across its growing suite of products and services.

OpenAI, the tech company behind ChatGPT, has undergone its first-ever rebrand, introducing a new typeface, wordmark, symbol, and color palette to unify the visual identity across its growing suite of products and services