The Initiative on Cities serves as a hub for urban related research and teaching across Boston University. We engage with urban leaders, policymakers, academics, and students from around the world to work toward sustainable, just, and inclusive urban transformation.

• cities

• Research and policy centers
• Academia

We build digital experiences designed around the needs of our constituents. We work to make these tools beautiful, welcoming, and highly useful.

CityScore is an initiative designed to inform the Mayor and city managers about the overall health of the City at a moment’s notice by aggregating key performance metrics into one number.

• cities

• The Tech
• Civic data
• Govtech

Smart Cities

• Graveyard
• Hubs

City page covers which tracking technologies are in place, why, and what they mean for privacy

• The Tech
• Emerging tech
• Smart Cities and sensors

The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics was formed in 2010 as one of the first municipal innovation offices in the world. Our research and design projects tackle a range of topics — from civic engagement to city infrastructure to education. Our team comes from a diverse array of backgrounds and our work comes in many different flavors.

• The People
• Build something
• Innovation teams and labs

• The People
• Build something
• Smart Cities and sensors

The Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI) is an interuniversity partnership that pursues original urban research on the cutting edge of scholarship and public policy, with an emphasis on opportunities created by novel digital data.

• neighborhoods

• The Tech
• Civic data
• Participatory democracy

Boston Civic Media is a faculty-led network that aims to advance the transdisciplinary domain of civic media research and pedagogy in the Greater Boston Area.

• Conferences
• Peer networks

BARI is an inter-university research partnership for Northeastern University and Harvard University in conjunction with the City of Boston.

• Meet the others
• In-person meetings
• Conferences

This study documents the rise of competitive broadband service in Boston; describes steadily increasing City efforts to close gaps in broadband affordability, devices, and skills; characterizes the remaining gaps in these areas as defined by stakeholders and available data; and makes near-term policy recommendations to address these gaps in light of current federal funding opportunities. This report also provides a high-level estimate of the cost of building a third competitive fiber network in the City, in addition to the residential services of Comcast and Verizon.

• Digital literacy
• Connectivity
• Community wifi

With the onset of COVID, BARI has sought to construct a data-support system for a city during a pandemic–both to serve our local communities and to act as a model for others across the country.

• cities

• Surveys & polling
• COVID Engagement Projects
• COVID Data Projects

Atlascope is a tool for exploring historic urban maps in metropolitan Boston and telling stories about how places have changed over time.

• history

• Civic maps

In this historic election, in addition to a traditional editorial that argues that the former vice president can restore the integrity of the presidency and set the country on a better path, the Globe editorial board make 12 cases for 12 different kinds of voters.

• US Election 2020

• Media

Our team makes sure the networks, computers, and systems that support the City are secure and effective. We also manage the City’s websites and technologies focused on service delivery.

• Govtech
• Public sector innovation labs

• The People
• Get funding
• Funders & donors

Code for Boston addresses local social and civic challenges through creative uses of technology.

• The People
• Meet the others
• Civic hacking meetups

Design Action Research with Government (DARG) is a guide for creating civic innovation projects.

• guides

• Building inside government
• Public Private Partnerships

We help people avoid getting ticketed and towed when they park on the street through simple SMS alerts.

• mobility
• streetscape
• place-based

• Consumer watchdogging
• Service alerts

Transforming Narratives for Environmental Justice (TNEJ) seeks to advance environmental and climate justice through collaborative storytelling, design, and research.

• Climate action

• Media
• Narrative tech
• Academic programs

This 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.

• reports
• students

• Academia
• Reports
• Public Interest Tech

Boston Review’s Black Voices in the Public Sphere Fellowship  is designed to prepare and support a more diverse generation of  journalists, editors, and publishers.

• Media
• Fellowships

Modern administrative data—from 311 and 911 calls to building permit applications to Tweets—offer a detailed view of events and conditions across the city.

• census
• cities

• Civic data
• Urban planning
• Narrative tech

BARI has worked closely with the Mayor’s Office of New urban Mechanics and the 311 system examine how Bostonians contribute to the maintenance of the public spaces and infrastructure of neighborhoods—that is, custodianship in the urban commons.

• public space

• Civic data
• Urban planning
• Communicating with the people

BARI is an inter-university research partnership for Northeastern University and Harvard University in conjunction with the City of Boston.

• Meet the others
• In-person meetings
• Conferences

The Justice Media co-Lab at Boston University provides the programmatic structure to train a new generation of computational investigative journalists equipped to leverage the power of computing and data science to advance justice and transparency.

• Media
• Courses
• Academia

The Hub for Civic Tech Impact at Boston University convenes many of the research and educational programs that focus on the design, analysis, and development of computing and data science methods and systems operating within the context of legal, societal, economic, and public policy frameworks.

• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers
• Academia

The 2020 documentary explores the government of Boston, Massachusetts, from racial justice, housing, climate change action and more. Wiseman's documentaries do not have a standard narrative arc, narration, or interviews, but are based on observation of day-to-day organizational life, in this case the activities of Boston's city government in fall 2018 and winter 2019. Much of the film follows Mayor Marty Walsh in activities such as meetings with aides, addressing business leaders about the impact of climate change on the Harbor, listening to veterans at Faneuil Hall on November 11, observing Thanksgiving Day at Goodwill Industries, and giving his state of the city address at Symphony Hall. A second major theme of the film is public servants helping people in need: the eviction prevention task force, another task force on economic advancement for Latina women, and an economic development adviser working with an ethnically-focused grocery store.[2]

• Govtech
• Shows and films

An experimental Boston Globe Lab geo-focused Twitter aggregator

• The Tech
• Media
• Graveyard

An Evaluation of Digital Gaming Platforms on Civic Capacity and Collective Action in the Boston Public School District

• The People
• Evaluate impact

Eventbrite - Tisch College, Tufts University presents Frontiers of Democracy Conference 2016 - Thursday, June 23, 2016 | Saturday, June 25, 2016 at Tufts University - Boston Campus, Boston, MA. Find event and ticket information.

• The People
• Meet the others
• In-person meetings

Combating media manipulation through knowledge and action

• The Tech
• The People
• Media

The Barr Foundation is a private, Boston-based foundation with core programs in Arts & Creativity, Climate, and Education.

• The People
• Get funding
• Funders & donors

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council is the regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metro Boston.

• The People
• Build something
• Building inside government

NDI is partnering with Living Cities—an organization that harnesses the collective power of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions to get dramatically better results for low-income urban residents—on a research initiative to explore the innovative ways that megacity governments are strengthening urban democracy.

• cities
• research

• The People
• Meet the others
• Socialize online

EveryAction offers a best-in-class Digital, Fundraising and Organizing SaaS products, with a unified customer relationship management (CRM) platform that is able to effectively serve large and small nonprofits, as well as campaigns through its NGP VAN brand.

• The Tech
• Advocacy tech
• Adjacent Fields

I-Lab students work in interdisciplinary teams to address urban and civic challenges in the Dudley and Upham’s Corner neighborhoods.

• The People
• Learn about civic tech
• Courses

Join Boston Area Research Initiative for a public conversation centered on the opportunities and challenges of installing kiosks throughout the city.

• The Tech
• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy

The Community Approach to Research Partnerships (CARP) aims to collaboratively establish academic and community partners...

• The People
• Build something
• Playbooks and design principles

This tool helps predict the choices of mobility modes made at the individual level throughout the entire Boston Metro area.

• mobility

• The Tech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Emerging tech