Bi-Weekly Hacknights where technologists, designers, policy nerds, community builders, or basically anyone (yes, no matter what your background!) Come together to build solutions to civic issues in Tiohtià: ke / Montreal.

• Civic hacking meetups

The unregulated attention economy driving social media is fraying our democracy, threatening our mental and physical health, and exposing our children to violent and disturbing content. Our limited attention has become the most valuable resource on the internet and it is captured and manipulated via the rampant and unregulated collection of our personal data. This is surveillance capitalism at work - a relentless assault on our private data that provide intimate insights which are sold to the highest bidder, with next-to-no awareness or control. We are told that having our data taken is the price we pay for the “free” use of digital services. But this system places the priorities of corporates ahead of the social good while it manipulates our social perspective, drives division and isolates us from each other. There are few practical ways to opt out of the attention economy that depends on pervasive surveillance. And even if you manage to on an individual level, the real world impact of this data-driven social manipulation is impossible to avoid. Big Tech controls a global audience of billions with a market power that is unprecedented in the history of media. Yet they have almost no oversight and reject liability for the harms their products cause.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Civic Fabric is a platform for hosting public applications for citizens. The platform is in early development. Products are in alpha, and Civic Studio is looking to help government modernize and improve delivery of services online where it makes sense.

• Govtech

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

• Watchdogging and transparency

This project attempts to document all collective action from workers in the tech industry. Contribute to our archive. Currently, there are 506 collective actions documented.

• labor

• Advocacy tech
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Specific campaigns

This class uses the idea of values-driven design to help creators consider the politics of the technologies we use and which we bring into the world and teaches methods of research, design and deployment intended to help technologies meet the needs of real-world communities.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Courses

Though successive generations of digital technology have become increasingly powerful in the past twenty years, digital democracy has yet to realize its potential for deliberative transformation.

• Digital Public Infrastructure

Send Texts, Make Change We leverage technology and our army of passionate, remote volunteers to help progressives run and win everywhere.

• Peer to peer SMS

Urban Reviewer catalogs over 150 urban renewal plans that NYC adopted to get federal funding for acquiring land, relocating the people living there, demolishing the structures and making way for new public and private development.

• land
• cities

• Urban planning

The Pudding's clever visual essays present data in artistic and meaningfully interactive ways. Here they share "How to make dope shit", and other lessons.

• resources
• guides

• Media
• Data visualization

Where is there room for common ground on Twitter? This tool tracks hashtags that are used by both Democrats and Republicans on Twitter and also describes the similarity in the tone of tweets across parties.

• X (Twitter)

• Media and social media analysis
• Filter bubble poppers

UNI Global Union's Top Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights fills an enormous gap with regards workers' rights in the new world of work.

• labor

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

It educated policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues. CPSR incubated numerous projects such as Privaterra, the Public Sphere Project, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the 21st Century Project, the Civil Society Project, and the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. Founded by U.S. computer scientists at Stanford University and Xerox PARC, CPSR had members in over 30 countries on six continents. CPSR was a non-profit 501.c.3 organization registered in California.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Peer networks
• Predecessors

Most tech is designed with the best intentions. But once a product is released and reaches scale, all bets are off. The Risk Mitigation Manual presents eight risk zones where we believe hard-to-anticipate and unwelcome consequences are most likely to emerge.

• Build something
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Taught by David Eaves

• Govtech
• Digital transformation
• Courses

A non-profit organisation that promotes democracy and a culture where media and the powerful respect human rights and encourage a just and fair society. MMA acts in a watchdog role to promote ethical and fair journalism that supports human rights.

• human rights

• Media
• Media monitoring

Political 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.

• extensions
• Facebook
• YouTube

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Crowdsourcing
• Advertising

This new coloring book is the perfect tool for kids and adults to learn about the political landscape of the United States in a fun and interactive way.

• Civic literacy
• Artistic interventions

Coded Bias follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life. 

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

Explore how your local criminal justice system performs.

• Civic data
• Open data publishing portals
• Justice tech

Many of the perpetrators of the US Capitol attacks on January 6th uploaded videos to Parler. These videos leaked, and here ProPublica visualizes them on a chronological timeline.

• Media
• Timelines

Human-centered design frameworks start by identifying who a product is for and then placing them at the center of the product strategy. The Co/Act toolkit adapts and expands this approach to design digital products, services, or campaigns through modular do-it-yourself style activities that are aggressively low cost, high impact, interdisciplinary, and focused on building the capacity of participants. Co/Act will help you design more powerful products, services, and campaigns by centering them on your community, stakeholders, and colleagues - ensuring that the end result is more inclusive and therefore democratic.

• Design
• Toolkits

By participating, you get to consider both community-scale opportunities for change as well as personal opportunities.

• Climate action

• Engagement tech

The cities in this Atlas represent the vanguard of urban governments that are hosting tests, developing their own autonomous vehicle (AV) pilots, making plans and policy, and monitoring developments in AV technologies, uses, and markets.

• mobility
• cities

• Emerging tech
• Hardware
• Automated Vehicles

White Collar Crime Risk Zones uses machine learning to predict where financial crimes are mostly likely to occur across the US. To learn about our methodology, read our white paper.

• white collar crime

• Civic maps
• Artistic interventions

Guatemalan collaborative fact-checking platform with digital training and educational courses, through which journalists can educate themselves on open source intelligence (OSINT), disinformation analysis and digital safety.

• trainings

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Factchecking

The adoption of policing technologies must be guided by democratic legitimacy and an imperative to minimize harm.

• police violence

• Justice tech

"The aim of The Good Information Project is to claim back and own the inform in information."

• Fight disinformation

Annett Heft, Curd Knüpfer, Susanne Reinhardt, Eva Mayerhöffer, 2020

• Media and social media analysis

Copia Gaming is our ongoing initiative to design and facilitate a variety of games that explore serious and important subjects.

• Media
• Games and gamification

Turkopticon adds functionality to Amazon Mechanical Turk as you browse for HITs and review status of work you've done.

• labor
• Amazon

• Crowdsourcing

Filter and aggregate data to provinces or districts without code or mapping software

• Mapping tools

The e-LIberate / openDCN tool supports synchronous online deliberation with the goal of making decisions. It can be seen as an advanced chat where the times and modes of interaction are governed by Robert’s Rules of Order, a set of meeting rules that were designed to support equitable decision-making. This tool is intended to support groups of people who work together synchronously on specific issues or bound domains. 2003 e-Liberate is an online software application that facilitates online meetings utilizing standardized rules of discourse.

• Predecessors
• Meeting tech

Democratizing information about the legal system

• apps

• Legal tech
• Justice tech

Academy includes outcomes-driven online trainings for anyone, anywhere onthe essential skills and tools for making an impact in the 21st Century.

• trainings

• Govtech vendors

The Fellowship Program is a 6-month program supported by Code for Pakistan, the KP IT Board, and the World Bank, where a team of talented researchers, designers, community organizers, and developers collaborate to build apps, inspire citizen engagement, improve government, and show how to innovate in public services. These apps can help solve problems in a variety of public domains, such as healthcare, crime, disaster management, citizen engagement, transportation, traffic, education, etc.

• Fellowships

Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions.

• reports

• Participatory democracy
• Group decision making

The FactStream iOS app brings together the work of three of the largest U.S. fact-checking organizations, The Washington Post, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.

• apps

• Fight disinformation
• Factchecking

Bytes of Good is a podcast where we engage in critical discussions about technology, the role it plays in our society, and career paths in the social good space.

• Podcasts

This Global Language Data Review sets out what language data you need for planning, where you can find it, and how you can help build the body of data to support inclusive services.

• Adjacent Fields
• Translation and linguistic representation
• Diversity & Inclusion

Now there’s an even easier, faster, and more secure way for Texans to take care of government to-dos – like driver license and vehicle registration renewals – anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

• Govtech
• Bureaucracy tech

Where ideas and action intersect to create real social impact.

• Research and policy centers
• Academic programs

Feminist.AI works to put technology into the hands of makers, researchers, thinkers and learners to amplify unheard voices and create more accessible AI for all.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

The Digital Public Goods Standard is a set of specifications and guidelines designed to maximise consensus about whether a digital solution conforms to the definition of a digital public good: open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm by design and are of high relevance for attainment of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• Partnerships for the Goals

• Data schemas and standards

Publish and preserve your data

• Civic data
• Archives
• Open data publishing platforms

The lives of Ukrainian children with cancer depend on specialized treatment. This is where they find critical help for them in Romania.

• Ukraine
• Good health and well-being

• Resource matching and sharing

Twitter's community-based approach to misinformation

• civic features
• X (Twitter)

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Civic features

Information sheets for people fleeing Ukraine, in English and Ukranian

• refugees
• Ukraine

• Disaster response and humanitarian tech

Data about every national legislature in the world, freely available for you to use.

• The Tech
• Civic data
• Graveyard

Resources and leads for investigating algorithms in society

• guides

• The Tech
• Govtech
• Emerging tech