These aren’t breaking news alerts—they’re on-your-block alerts.

• apps

• The Tech
• Media
• Journalism

The We’re Right Here campaign is working to build a united movement for community power, spanning places and communities across the UK as well as the political spectrum.

• local

• Participatory democracy
• Specific campaigns
• Decentralization

Fostering youth engagement in Tunisia

• youth

• Citizen Engagement
• Social media

The Be There Certificate is a free, self-paced learning experience designed to increase mental health literacy and provide you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to safely support anyone who may be struggling with their mental health.

• mental health
• 2023 Webby Awards

• Online courses

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

The time for theorizing is coming to an end. The need for action has arrived.

• reports

• Disaster response and humanitarian tech

Government Technology used the Socrata Open Data API to look at about 55,000 data assets published by 336 U.S. state and local governments — an average of 163 assets per publisher

• Civic data
• Open government data

In the spring of 2022, we partnered with the editors of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology to commission a collection of papers examining what it means to have a healthy or vibrant digital public sphere.

• reports

• Reports
• Digital Public Infrastructure

Everyone is talking about AI, but how and where is it actually being used? We've mapped out interesting examples where AI has been harmful and where it's been helpful.

• Adjacent Fields
• Artificial Intelligence
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

An integrated mass transit solution for emerging markets, focused on providing public transport data and technologies that enrich services, empower people, and enable innovation.

• mass transit

A realtime bus locator service

• The Tech
• Govtech
• Graveyard

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcherDan Gillmor's Bayosphere citizen media project has been acquired by Backfence, a Vienna, Virginia based company that intends to use local communities to generate all online content and sell advertising around it.It is a logical move but it also shows that citizen media is not easy to do. Bayosphere did not...

• The Tech
• Media
• Graveyard

Our program offers real-time tracking of school buses through a mobile web app. We hope that — in a small way — this creates a better experience for parents and students.

• The Tech
• Govtech
• Engagement tech

• The Tech
• Media
• Filter bubble poppers

Showing you where your taxes get spent

• The Tech
• Advocacy tech
• Watchdogging and transparency

To support the Yale Information Society Project’s work on how law should regulate and social media companies should govern the digital public sphere

• Adjacent Fields
• Learn about civic tech
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Find out where to vote

• The Tech
• Engagement tech
• Voting and elections

A 2018 initiative to organize American voters around the midterm elections

• Specific campaigns
• Distributed campaigns

The repository contains maps of Mexican districts used to elect representatives to various offices and code for data systematization and analysis. The primary source are shapefiles publicly distributed by INE (formerly IFE, Mexico's national election board, page here). Data in this repo is prepared for mapping and statistical analysis.

• 2024 elections

• Civic data
• Voting and elections

Civitech’s campaign management platform, RunningMate, is the affordable solution for campaigns of all sizes and budgets.

• partisan

• Civic data
• Organize campaigns
• Campaign tools

TextOut has been trusted by hundreds of candidates and organizations across the U.S. since 2018.

• partisan

• Organize campaigns
• Peer to peer SMS

An affordable voter file perfect for civic engagement and grassroots organizing

• partisan

• Advocacy tech
• Organize campaigns
• Voter outreach

Track your policy impact

• Media and social media analysis
• Evaluate impact
• Research tools

Find out where to vote, and absentee voting, and more, in Slovenia's 2024 EU elections

• 2024 elections

• Voting and elections
• Find your polling place
• Make a plan to vote

CLJE:Lab is the policy and legal innovation lab at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy – where our ideas for building worker power and strengthening democracy hit the ground.

• labor

• Academia
• Innovation teams and labs

This set of free tools, guidance, and training is designed to help organizations take key cybersecurity steps and be more secure.

• guides

• Foundational layers
• Cybersecurity

A service of the Law Center for Better Housing (LCBH), here to help Illinois tenants facing housing issues

• housing

• Artificial Intelligence
• Legal tech
• Bots

AI-powered database where you can search California's legislators, lobbyists, donors, gifts, travel, bills, transcripts, videos, supporters, and organizations

• state

• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech
• Government transparency
• Parliamentary and congressional monitoring

8-month pilot to test 12 computer-vision sensors across four boroughs of NYC to employ machine vision and improve street-level data collection and improve planning decisions

• cities
• mobility
• streetscape

• Artificial Intelligence
• Urban planning
• Machine vision

6-month pilot of three pole-mounted static air quality machines

• air quality
• cities
• Reduced inequalities

• Emerging tech
• Smart Cities and sensors
• Hardware

This portal makes it easier for citizens to find information on government services and measure service levels in Nigeria.

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Government transparency

by Nanjala Nyabola

• books

• Learn about civic tech
• Books

This programme will support 100 people to become Everyday Democracy Champions, in turn catalysing the action of others in communities furthest from power, and creating tangible change across all four UK nations.

• trainings

• Advocacy tech
• Civic literacy
• Courses

Where Chicago's historically underrepresented tech founders find the funding, knowledge, and networks to help your business thrive.

• Build something
• Accelerators
• Building in the private sector

An app for tracking political advertisements on Meta-owned advertising platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

• Civic data
• Watchdogging and transparency
• Voting and elections

Building spaces to grow the global conversation on environmental data access and use

• Climate action
• Sustainable cities and communities

• Civic data
• Civil society research outfits
• Environmental data

"Suggestions bag" for the Portuguese Assembly. It's actively used but it's not clear where citizen suggestions go once posted.

• Govtech
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech
• Communicating with the government

A texting hotline promoting education for peace

• Peace, justice, and strong institutions
• Israel Palestine

• Pro bono and volunteer
• Help out
• Peer to peer SMS

Art exhibition at MIT: critical explorations of ai and cities

• cities

• Media
• Artificial Intelligence
• Artistic interventions

Just like how we use AI to detect sidewalks, street signs and road names in satellite imagery to display helpful information in Google Maps, we’ll also use AI to identify oil and gas infrastructure, like oil storage containers, in our imagery. Then, we’ll combine it with EDF’s information about oil and gas infrastructure to locate where the emissions are coming from.

• Google
• Climate action
• methane

• Civic maps
• Civic features
• Satellites

Fatima's mission is for every person in the world to have their voice heard, while ensuring a safe, secure, and ethical research experience.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Surveys & polling
• Research tools

The AI Democracy Projects engage the implications of AI systems and tools, including predictive algorithms, machine learning, and frontier models, for democratic society.

• Govtech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Voting and elections

The program pays topic experts to create relevant content on social media for NGI

• Creators and Influencers
• Public Relations and amplification

Research & Data Investigation Lab - Where indie data punk, meets media theory pop to investigate digital rights blues

• Civic data
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Data visualization

Eurasia Foundation envisions a world where all people have the opportunity to realize their potential and transform their societies.

• Funders & donors

To build the foundations of democracy with intention, as Jill Blair and Malka Kopell suggest, there is a need to survey the types of civic infrastructure in place and how these building blocks fit together in order to appreciate where the cracks and crevices are that need strengthening.

• guides

• Civic data
• Citizen Engagement
• Research tools

Its goal is to promote research and disseminate best practice in the ethical application of artificial intelligence in cities.

• cities

• Artificial Intelligence
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Research and policy centers

Smart Districts (Dublin) are strategically selected locations where innovation projects are fast-tracked.

• neighborhoods
• cities

• Smart Cities and sensors
• Innovation teams and labs