Civic technology

Civic technology is technology (mainly information technology) that enables engagement or participation of the public for stronger development, enhancing citizen communications, improving government infrastructure, and generally improving the public good.[1][2][3] It encompasses civic applications, platforms supporting government bodies, institutions and other software enabling those goals.

History

As time has gone on in the United States, technology has made leaps and bounds. There has been a great importance placed on the improvement of technology in nearly every sector. Vast improvements have been made in sectors ranging from cellular phones to surgical tools. Fairly recently, Americans made the transition from cell phones to smartphones and surgeons began using high-tech surgical robots that assist them. Technology has taken over, and is now a part of every American's daily life.

As advanced technologies become commonplace in society and available throughout the population, many local governments and officials have begun utilizing them for public outreach and feedback. Specifically, the Internet is being used more for communication between governing officials and citizens.

Breakthrough events in Civic Technology

The Obama-Biden administration allowed for the smooth integration of civic technology into the American political sphere. Their administration utilized many civic tech strategies in order to facilitate political participation of the average citizen.[4]

Today, events known as "hackathons" are often hosted by tech-savvy groups of people with experience in fields such as computer programming, graphic design, and hardware and software programming. These events focus on bettering software to make it more user friendly and easier for members of the community to access.

Another huge part of modern civic technology is social media. Companies such as Facebook and Twitter allow citizens from all over the U.S. and the world to communicate and share information. News outlets, such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts which allow them to post news articles to the sites. This creates an environment in which individuals have nearly instant access to news. These social media outlets also have mobile apps which allow users to access information from nearly anywhere on their phones, tablets, and laptops, making the sharing of information essentially instantaneous.

According to a study conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC), an estimated $6.4 billion will be spent on civic technology in 2015 out of approximately $25.5 billion that governments in the United States will spend on external-facing technology projects.[5][6] A Knight Foundation survey of the civic technology field found that the number of civic technology companies grew by roughly 23% annually between 2008 and 2013.[7]

Span of the civic technology space

A 2013 report from the Knight Foundation attempts to map different focuses within the civic technology space. It broadly categorizes civic technology projects into two categories: open government and community action.[8]

Open government:

Community action:

Citizens are also now given access to their representatives through social media. They are able to express their concerns directly to government officials through sites like Twitter and Facebook. There have even been past cases of online voting being a polling option for local elections, which have seen vastly increased turnouts, such as in an Arizona election in 2000 which saw a turnout double that of the previous election. It is asserted though that civic technology in government provides for a good management technique but lacks in providing fair democratic representation.[9]

The definition of what constitutes civic technology is contested to a certain extent,[5] especially with regards to companies engaged in the sharing or access economy, such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb. For example, AirBnb's ability to provide New York residents with housing during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy could be considered a form of civic technology.[10] However, Nathaniel Heller, Managing Director of the Research for Development Institute's Governance Program contends that for-profit platforms definitively fall outside of the scope of civic technology: Heller has said that "while citizen-to-citizen sharing is indeed involved, the mission of these companies is focused on maximizing profit for their investors, not any sort of experiment in building social capital."[11] From a goal perspective, civic technology can be understood as “the use of technology for the public good”.[12]

Microsoft’s Technology & Civic Engagement Team have attempted to produce a precise taxonomy of civic technology through a bottom-up approach. They inventoried the existing initiatives and classified them according to:

This work resulted in a field guide.

The Technology & Civic Engagement Team have also produced a network visualization tool for civic technology organizations, Civic Graph.

Civic tech around the world

The worldwide organization about civic tech is the Open Government Partnership (OGP). It “is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.”[13] It was created in 2011 by 8 founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States). The OGP gathers every year for a summit.

Countries involved are located mainly in America (North and South), Europe and South-Asia (Indonesia, Australia, South Korea). Only a few African countries are part of the OGP, though South Africa is one of the founding countries.

Europe

France

The most dynamic French city regarding civic tech is Paris, with many initiatives moving in the Sentier, a neighborhood known for being a tech hub.[14] According to Le Monde, French civic tech is “already a reality” but lacks investments to scale up.[15]

Government-led initiatives

In France, public data are available on data.gouv.fr[16] by the Etalab[17] mission, located under the authority of the Prime Minister.

Government agencies are also leading large citizen consultation through the Conseil national du numérique[18] (National digital council), for example with the law about the digital republic (Projet de loi pour une république numérique).

Citizen led initiatives

The French citizen community for civic tech is gathered in the collective Démocratie ouverte[19] (Open democracy). The main purpose of this collective is to enhance democracy to increase citizen power, improve the way to decide collectively and update the political system. Démocratie ouverte gathers many projects focusing on :

Italy

Citizen led initiatives

A consortium made by TOP-IX,[20] FBK[21] and RENA[22] created the Italian civic tech school.[23]

The first edition[24] was in May 2016 in Turin.

America

USA

Civic technology is built by a variety of companies, organizations and volunteer groups. One prominent example is Code for America, a not-for-profit based in San Francisco. This organization has four primary focuses: Health and Human Services, Security and Justice, Economic Development, and Communication & Engagement. Through these four primary topics of concern, Code for America uses what the government has already implemented and made change to make these resources more available to the general public. Another example of a Civic Technology organization is the Chi Hack Night,[25] based in Chicago. The Chi Hack Night is a weekly, volunteer-run event for building, sharing and learning about civic technology.

Effects

Effects of civic technology on social behavior

Because of the convenience provided by civic technology, there is growing concern about the effects it may have on social behavior.

In regards to elections and online polling, there is the potential for voters to make less informed decisions because of the ease of voting. Although many more voters will turn out, they may only be doing so because it is easy and may not be consciously making a decision based on their own synthesized opinion. It is suggested that if online voting becomes more common, so should constituent-led discussions regarding the issues or candidates being polled.[9]

The importance of face-to-face interactions has also been called to question with the increase in e-mails and social media and a decrease in traditional, in-person social interaction. Technology as a whole may be responsible for this change in social norm, but it also holds potential for turning it around with audio and video communication capabilities. More research needs to be conducted in order to determine if these are appropriate substitutes for in-person interaction, or if any substitute is even feasible.[9]

Effects of civic technology on socioeconomics

With advanced technologies coming at higher costs and with an increased reliance on civic technologies may leave low-income families in the dark if they cannot afford the platforms for civic technology, such as computers and tablets. This causes an increase in the gap between lower and middle/high socioeconomic class families.[9]

Knowledge of how to use computers is equally important when considering factors of accessing civic technology applications online, and is also generally lower in low-income households. Public Schools have taken the lead in ensuring proper technology access and education in the classroom to better prepare children for the high-tech world, but there is still a clear difference between online contributions from those with and without experience on the internet.[9]

Future of civic technology

As the field of civic technology advances further through the coming years it seems as though apps and handheld devices will become a key focus for development as more companies and municipalities reach out to developers to help with specific issues. Apps are being used in conjunction with hand held devices to make life easier. Tasks such as communication, data tracking, and safety are just a few of the topics app developers and communities have tried to make easier. The cheapest way for citizens to get help and information is through neighbors and others around them. By linking people through apps and websites that harbor conversation and promote civil service cities have found an inexpensive way to provide services to its people.[26][27]

Civic hacking

Civic hacking is a creative and often technological approach to solving civic problems. Often civic hacking involves the use of government data to make governments more accountable, but the goals of civic hacking are as diverse as those who might call themselves hackers. Civic hackers can be programmers, designers, data scientists, good communicators, civic organizers, entrepreneurs, government employees and anyone willing to get his or her hands dirty solving problems.[28] Some civic hackers are employed by nonprofits, such as Code for America and projects such as mySociety work at the intersection of civic technology and hacktivism.[29][30] Some work for innovative for-profit companies, such as the geospatial software provider Azavea in Philadelphia. Others are civic hackers only by night.

Numerous federal agencies coordinate a day dedicated to civic hacking. National Day of Civic Hacking is a nationwide day of action where developers, government employees, designers, journalists, data scientists, non-profit employees, UX designers, and residents who care about their communities come together to host civic tech events leveraging their skills to help their community. Thousands of people join to use their hacking skills for good, brought to you by Code for America, Brigades, Secondmuse, and U.S. Small Business Administration.

Code for America

Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. The organization believes that for the U.S. government to truly serve the people in the 21st century, it must do three things:

  1. Be good at digital. Digital skills must be embedded at all levels of government, and owned by the people responsible for delivering programs and services to the public.
  2. Ensure policy and implementation work together, and are centered around the needs of the people. Linear processes, moving from policy, to implementation to stasis, must transform into iterative cycles where policy and implementation are informed by each other and are focused on people's needs.
  3. Be a platform for civic engagement and participation. Government must learn to incorporate productive contributions from the public, so that everyone can help make government work.[31]

mySociety

mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy.[2] It began as a UK-focused organisation with the aim of making online democracy tools for UK citizens.[3]

Princeton Group Hackings

Princeton University Professor Andrew Appel set out to prove how easy it was to hack into a voting machine. He and a graduate student, Alex Halderman, purchased a voting machine, and Halderman picked the lock in 7 seconds. They removed the 4 ROM chips and replaced them with modified versions of their own: a version of modified firmware that could throw off the machine’s results, subtly altering the tally of votes, never to betray a hint to the voter. It took less than 7 minutes to complete the process.

Appel wrote a testimony for the Congress House Subcommittee on Information Technology hearing on “Cybersecurity: Ensuring the Integrity of the Ballot Box”, suggesting to for Congress to eliminate touchscreen voting machines after the election of 2016, and that it require all elections be subject to sensible auditing after every election to ensure that the systems are functioning properly and to prove to the American people that their votes are counted as cast.[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Civic Tech: Entrepreneurship Opportunities".
  2. ↑ "Nick Bilton: New York Times: Changing Government and Tech With Geeks".
  3. ↑ "But What Is "Civic"?".
  4. ↑ "From Networked Nominee to Networked Nation: Examining the Impact of Web 2.0 and Social Media on Political Participation and Civic Engagement in the 2008 Obama Campaign". Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  5. 1 2 "The future of civic technology".
  6. ↑ "Civic tech in 2015: $6.4 billion to connect citizens to services, and to one another - TechRepublic".
  7. ↑ The Emergence of Civic Tech: Investments in a Growing Field
  8. ↑ "Knight Foundation: Trends in Civic Tech".
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Cavanaugh, John W. (2000). "E-Democracy: Thinking About The Impact Of Technology On Civic Life". National Civic Review. 89 (3): 229. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  10. ↑ "Airbnb Disaster Response".
  11. ↑ The Sharing Economy is Not Civic Tech
  12. ↑ "Towards a taxonomy of civic technology - Microsoft on the Issues". Microsoft on the Issues. 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  13. ↑ "Open Government Partnership". Open Government Partnership. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  14. ↑ "Paris, bientôt capitale des Civic Tech ?". Libération.fr. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  15. ↑ Fagot, Vincent (2016-10-10). "Les nouvelles ambitions de la " Civic Tech " française". Le Monde.fr (in French). ISSN 1950-6244. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  16. ↑ "Accueil - Data.gouv.fr". www.data.gouv.fr. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  17. ↑ "Le blog de la mission Etalab | Service du Premier Ministre chargé de l'ouverture des données publiques et du développement de la plateforme française OpenData". www.etalab.gouv.fr. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  18. ↑ "Conseil National du Numérique". Conseil National du Numérique (in French). Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  19. ↑ "Démocratie Ouverte - Collectif de transition démocratique". democratieouverte.org. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  20. ↑ "TOP-IX". TOP-IX. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  21. ↑ "FBK". Fondazione Bruno Kessler. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  22. ↑ "progetto RENA". Progetto RENA. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  23. ↑ "Scuola di tecnologie civiche". Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  24. ↑ "civic tech school 1st". Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  25. ↑ Night, Chi Hack. "Chi Hack Night". Chi Hack Night. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  26. ↑ "The Future of Civic Tech: 8 Localities Showcase Their Initiatives".
  27. ↑ Feldman, Amy (21 December 2010). "Intelligent Cities" – via content.time.com.
  28. ↑ Civic Hacking - Open Government Data: The Book.
  29. ↑ "What We Do". Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  30. ↑ "Is Civic Hacking Becoming 'Our Pieces, Loosely Joined'?". Tech President. 2012-07-25.
  31. ↑ America, Code for. "How we do it - Code for America". Code for America. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  32. ↑ Appel, Andrew (September 28, 2016). "Andrew Appel Princeton Testimony" (PDF). House Subcommittee of Information Technology. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
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