Mobilizing the next generation of technologists to create civic impact in cities and states across the country.

• Find a job or hire someone

Thoughtful engagement with decision-makers, stakeholders, and the general public provides the foundation for sound planning, successful projects, and better communities.

• Engagement tech

Themis makes it easy to surface, capture, 
and share your organization’s knowledge. Our tools activate and enable every employee.

• Govtech
• Bureaucracy tech

We are an interdisciplinary group of experts in labor, technology, anti-racism, feminism, and transnationalism.

• labor

• Peer networks
• Research and policy centers

What do your tweets make other people think about your political views? If you are an American Twitter user, log-in to our app below to see how how our model scores your tweets on a continuum from "very liberal" to "very conservative."

• X (Twitter)

• Filter bubble poppers

In this report, we dive into the history of public investment in technologies at the foundation of Big Tech, and the imbalances between these investments and the returns to the public sector.

• reports

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Decentralization

Participate in the international celebration of GIS technology.

• Holidays
• Mapping

A free relational organizing technique informed by behavioral science; a lightweight relational organizing approach that reaches non-activists; a commit-to-vote replacement that doesn’t insult your supporters.

• Organize campaigns
• Relational organizing
• Behavioral economics programs

Our research suggests that stepping outside your echo chamber can make you more polarized not less. One of the reasons why this happens is that we become captivated by extremists on the other side who overshadow more moderate voices. The bots below retweet messages 12 by moderates each day who our research indicates resonates with members of the other party. We also screen out messages that score high on toxicity/incivility.

• X (Twitter)

• Bots
• Filter bubble poppers

Research ICT Solutions Ltd. is a boutique consultancy based in Canada and South Africa. Started in 2013, we have built a select list of clients who need simple but effective tools to make better decisions. RIS targets the policy and regulatory intersection between policy makers, regulators and the private sector. Our clients range from country regulators, international donor organisations to multi-national companies like Facebook.

• guides

• Connectivity

Documenting the use of defensive urban design in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

• cities
• place-based

• Archives
• Artistic interventions

Volunteer lawyers and legal aid advocates increasing access to justice From connecting attorneys to those most in need, to creating legal tools to help individuals advocate for themselves, we make the law work for the many and not the few.

• Legal tech
• Pro bono and volunteer
• Resource matching and sharing

We empower startup innovators and pioneering partners to better collaborate and create scalable impact to speed up the EU’s goal to create 100 sustainable cities by 2030.

• cities
• Sustainable cities and communities

• Accelerators
• Social impact design firms

Momentum is a training institute and movement incubator.

• trainings

• Organize campaigns
• Incubators
• Decentralization

By CivicMakers: The City [of SF] turned to CivicMakers to create a new program, Public Voice SF, that allows any San Francisco department or agency to connect to a diverse group of community members, collect real-time feedback, and use the input to improve City services.

• cities

• User research
• User research groups
• Graveyard

The Digital Equity Laboratory uncovers and addresses structural inequities that persist and evolve as technology transforms our cultural, social, and political systems.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Research and policy centers
• Digital security and privacy

This guide is meant to provide information on how you can make your virtual meetings accessible to people with disabilities.

• guides

• Assistive and Accessible Tech
• Meeting tech

The hidden costs of artificial intelligence, from natural resources and labor to privacy and freedom What happens when artificial intelligence saturates political life and depletes the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our societies? In this book Kate Crawford reveals how this planetary network is fueling a shift toward undemocratic governance and increased inequality. Drawing on more than a decade of research, award-winning science, and technology, Crawford reveals how AI is a technology of extraction: from the energy and minerals needed to build and sustain its infrastructure, to the exploited workers behind “automated” services, to the data AI collects from us. Rather than taking a narrow focus on code and algorithms, Crawford offers us a political and a material perspective on what it takes to make artificial intelligence and where it goes wrong. While technical systems present a veneer of objectivity, they are always systems of power. This is an urgent account of what is at stake as technology companies use artificial intelligence to reshape the world. Kate Crawford is a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research, the inaugural visiting chair of AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure, and the Miegunyah distinguished visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne. She co-founded the AI Now Institute at New York University, and leads the Foundations of Machine Learning international working group. She lives in New York City. By Kate Crawford

• Books

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

Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers from all over the world. - Wikipedia

• Funders & donors

Through training, research and digital tools, our expertise in relational organizing makes an impact at hundreds of progressive organizations, including Sunrise Movement, AFL-CIO, and Rock the Vote.

• trainings

• Organize campaigns
• Relational organizing

596 Acres built tools to help neighbors see vacant lots as opportunities and create needed green spaces that become focal points for community organizing and civic engagement.

• land
• cities

• Specific campaigns
• Graveyard

PDX CitySync is an ambitious, innovative project from the eGovernment Team and the City of Portland. Currently in Beta, built on Drupal 7.

• Engagement tech
• Ideation
• Service alerts

A tagging system for fact-checks

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Civic features

Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) is a multi-institutional initiative using techniques from algorithms, optimization, and mechanism design, along with insights from other disciplines, to improve access to opportunity for historically underserved and disadvantaged communities.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

This Code for Canada case study underscores what is possible when it comes to onboarding and implementing digital talent in government. It reviews the experience of four cohorts of Code for Canada Fellows and outlines opportunities and actions governments should consider to improve their exposure and efficacy in recruiting and retaining the talent needed to make digital government happen.

• Govtech
• Fellowships
• Digital transformation

Actionable data to bolster public safety

• Civic data
• Justice tech

We connect and support national digital campaigning organizations around the world which provide opportunities for activists to influence national and international politics.

• partisan

• Organize campaigns
• Advocacy tech
• Partner networks and coalitions

A free online course offered by The GovLab on: How to take advantage of technology, data and the collective wisdom in our communities to design powerful solutions to contemporary problems.

• Courses
• Online courses

Housed at TED, The Audacious Project is a funding initiative that encourages the world’s greatest changemakers to dream bigger.

• Get funding
• Funders & donors

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.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Artificial Intelligence

Publish and preserve your data

• Civic data
• Archives
• Open data publishing platforms

An academic and practitioner-focused journal on all aspects of technology and communities.

• Journals
• Academia
• Information & Communication Tech for Development ICT4D

Research with Code for America on CalFresh, by Donald Moynihan, Eric Giannella, Pamela Herd, and Julie Sutherland finds "hard evidence on the barriers administrative burdens pose."

• research

• Access social benefits
• Peer-reviewed research

Tools to build a movement

• The People
• The Tech
• Get funding

Capacitación a líderes locales y herramientas digitales para movilizar

• cities
• youth
• Gender Equality

• The Tech
• Advocacy tech

Algorithm Watch is a non-profit research and advocacy organization committed to evaluating and shedding light on algorithmic decision-making processes

• The Tech
• Watchdogging and transparency
• Advocacy tech

Driven by the rapid progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, intelligent machines are gaining the ability to learn, improve and make calculated decisions in ways that will enable them to perform tasks previously thought to rely solely on human experience, creativity, and ingenuit​y. As a result, we will in the near future see large parts of our lives influenced by AI.

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

All about changing communities, our workplaces, and the industry for the better.

• Gender Equality
• women

• The People
• Adjacent Fields
• Diversity & Inclusion

Using synthetic media to make satirical videos spreading awareness about climate change

• Climate action

• The People
• The Tech
• Advocacy tech

ActionSprout makes it easy to find curated content, schedule posts, manage Facebook ads, and create donations and petitions to grow your following!

• commercial

• The Tech
• Media
• Media and social media analysis

(PDF) How to develop collaborative data projects – for citizens, urban innovators, researchers and policy makers

• The People
• The Tech
• Civic data

Demographic Data and Policy Research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

• The Tech
• Civic data
• Open data publishing portals

The Design System makes it easy for state digital teams to build accessible, consistent, and performant services and products to meet Californians’ needs.

• Govtech
• Playbooks and design principles
• Design

When to Use Them, How to Choose & Tips for Maximum Results

• guides

• Digital participation platforms

Eligibee is a free nonprofit tool that helps you find and apply for government assistance, making it easier to get the food, healthcare, and income supports you need today.

• food
• Good health and well-being

• Access social benefits
• Supporting public sector from outside government
• Nonprofit tech

GovSight is a 501(c)(3) US nonprofit that is building a comprehensive civic information platform to help make citizenship simplified for all.

• local

• Participatory democracy
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech
• Civic literacy

A web platform where citizens take civic action for issues they care about

• Crowdsourcing
• Activism aggregators
• Civic crowdfunding platforms

We make one-year, $50,000 investments in faculty from across the university who want to conceptualize new impact labs through participation in our year-long Impact Lab Design Fellowship.

• Fellowships
• Design

Center at Stanford University connecting and accelerating work on social problems

• Research and policy centers
• Academia