Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldThe People > Learn about civic tech - (513)
This category collects different learning resources about civic tech. You can find from blogs that explain how to enhance the relationship between people and governments to podcasts and films on how humanitarian organizations are responding to crises. The collection also includes books, newsletters, research, catalogs, reports, and information about courses, trainings, and workshops.
Showing 513 Results
ALDA's podcast - "To promote positive change and democracy, through dialogue and interaction"
Data Morgana
Netherlands (Nederland, Holland) 🇳🇱Data Morgana ontrafelt hoe Big Tech en data onze wereld vormgeven.
Civic Technology & Algorithms for Social Good
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Course designed and taught by Maria Milosh at Bard College and Kronika in January - May 2026.
This paper argues that accounts of deliberative mini-publics misdiagnose the crisis by framing it primarily as a procedural deficit, neglecting a deeper dimension that populism exploits: the erosion of collective political agency.
NYC Open Data Lab
BrooklynThe NYC Open Data Lab is a public-facing initiative that equips students to access, analyze, and publish civic data through reproducible workflows and open-source tools.
European Civic Technology and Citizen Participation in the Age of AI
Finland (Suomi) 🇫🇮This paper explores how civic technology (civic tech) – that is, the use of digital technology to strengthen democracy by informing people, enabling participation and improving government accountability – can enhance citizen participation in Europe at a time of declining trust, polarization, and increasingly AI- and platform-shaped political communication.
Online for Offline: What local communities are telling us about digital tools, AI, and novel civic tech
United States of America 🇺🇸Why hasn’t technology fixed our civic participation problem?
Understanding Recommenders is a research-driven effort to demystify recommender systems and their impact on society.
ANTIPARTY AI Webinar Series
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧In our democracy, how can AI enhance our engagement in society, keep the government in check and improve the function of democratic processes?
Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET)
Washington, DCARSET offers satellite remote sensing training that builds the capacity of organizations to use NASA Earth science data in their decision-making.
IIID conducts high-impact, responsive research that keeps pace with rapidly evolving technology while addressing its profound implications for users and society.
A circumvention proxy built leveraging the unique benefits of a serverless platform
Busara
NairobiThe Busara Lab is now the largest behavioral science lab in the world with a panel of more than 133,000 participants across sites in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
It maps the dominant narratives that shape how people understand democracy, explains how messaging interacts with deeper mental models, and identifies strategies that can help rebuild support, engagement, and participation.
Birders: The Central Park Effect
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)A diverse group of full-of-attitude New Yorkers reveals how a hidden world of beautiful wild birds in the middle of Manhattan has upended and magically transformed their lives.
This systematic literature review examines how narratives about democracy shape democratic engagement and behavior.
Through The Night
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)THROUGH THE NIGHT is a cinema verité portrait of three working NY mothers whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center: a mother working the overnight shift as an essential worker at a hospital; another holding down three jobs to support her family; and a woman who for over two decades has cared for the children of parents with nowhere else to turn.
Changing Lanes documentary
BrooklynPlanning and politics collide in the struggle to redesign Brooklyn’s notoriously dangerous McGuinness Blvd.
Emergent City Documentary
BrooklynWhen a global developer purchases Industry City - a massive industrial complex on the waterfront - and begins to transform it into an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself.
Data Docs: Open Data on Screen
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Data Docs: Open Data on Screen is a day-long documentary screening program full of films exploring issues New Yorkers care about — street safety, housing, child care, and urban nature — are each paired with NYC Open Data datasets and followed by panel discussions with data experts, City staff, community practitioners, and, where possible, the filmmakers themselves.
Smart Cities Council Podcast
Washington, DCJoin us as the Smart Cities Council team and members from around the world talk to the people and places advancing the application of science, data, technology, and engineering aiming to create a safer, more beautiful, enabled, and resilient future for everyone.
WTF Podcast - What is the Future for Cities?
Washington, DCWhat is The Future for Cities? podcast is a platform to introduce and connect people who are actively and consciously working on the future of cities and to introduce research about the future of cities.
NECE is a multi-stakeholder network for civic educators to connect, learn and grow.
Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)
Sweden (Sverige) 🇸🇪V-Dem provides a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule.
Understanding America’s Interested Bystander: A Complicated Relationship with Civic Duty
Mountain View, CAIn particular, this paper outlines a joint qualitative and quantitative study for understanding “Interested Bystanders,” or that portion of the population that is paying attention to the world around them, but not regularly voicing their opinions or taking action.
Responsible AI with Rebekah Tweed
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Twice-monthly Substack on: Regulation & policy, Resources & tools, Model & product news, Societal impacts
The Almanack includes novel talks, vulnerability discoveries, and experiments from the most recent DEF CON summit.
The effect of ruling party change and party ideology on participatory budgeting stability: Survivors and victims of local elections
Spain (España) 🇪🇸This study addresses one of the most frequently cited explanations for PB’s instability: changes in the ruling party.
How outdated systems undermine the day-to-day work of members of parliament
A thorough and accessible account of how to use the Freedom of Information Act and other access laws, written by a leading expert
Connecting Current
CopenhagenA Curated Resource Library and Knowledge Sharing Community for the Digital Democracy Initiative
AI Resources for MPs and Parliament Staff
United States of America 🇺🇸A resource bank designed not just to explain AI, but to help MPs and staff with step-by-step guides to foster responsible adoption to meet the needs of the people they serve.
Using global case studies from the Participedia database, the findings reveal that democratic innovations excel in various attributes but rarely deliver substantial redistributive impact.
At a moment when diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives face mounting political backlash and institutional retrenchment, this research asks a question that is both urgent and foundational: Who gets to shape technology policy, and what determines who stays long enough to lead?
HiveMind Courses
435 Brannan St, San Francisco, CaliforniaJoin Hive Mind courses and certify not just your knowledge but your readiness to shape the future. Your journey to expertise starts here.
By analyzing how public employees learn, use, and adapt AI at work, the Observatory aims to identify which investments in skills and training strengthen government capacity, improve services, and deliver better outcomes for residents.
In How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit, a team of experts who themselves have helped launch 18 evidence-based charities (and counting) break down what it really takes to build impactful organizations.
This book is for anyone who wants to understand how to be an impactful grantmaker.
Distroid Digest
North AmericaA curated newsletter of grey literature and other non-traditional sources at the intersection of technology and society.
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧Our mission is to inspire and support better government and public policy around the world
Democratic Erosion Consortium (DEC)
United States of America 🇺🇸The Democratic Erosion Consortium (DEC) is a nonpartisan, collaborative effort to address the global challenge of democratic erosion through research, teaching, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
AI Design Field Guide
San Francisco"[W]e started AI Design Field Guide to serve as both a resource for our peers in the field, and also a time capsule of this unique time where we're all figuring out how this new kind of work is done in real time"
Project Geospatial
VirginiaA non-profit, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to advancing geospatial education for a better world.
Inside AI Substack
BerlinWe bring you news and insights fueled by insider voices at the cutting edge of Frontier AI—delivered straight to your inbox, every two weeks.
Whistleblowing Now and Then is hosted by Anna Myers, Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network.
Civic Glossary
Falls Church, VirginiaThe Public Servants team is defining and explaining common civic tech terms
Good Services - the book
LondonThe bestselling book by Lou Downe about how to design services that work
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Civic Tech Field Guide