Civic Tech in the United Kingdom
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][render_custom_map location =”United Kingdom”][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_title_position=”left”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1590756105327{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 5px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #d0eaf2 !important;}”]Civic Tech projects in the UK date back to at least 1996, which is when a small group of developers and interested people got together and formed UKCOD (UK Citizens Online Democracy), a politically neutral group to explore the democratic potential of the internet.
UKCOD went on to become what mySociety is today, with many civic tech projects coming, going, remaining or thriving in the meantime (here’s a handy timeline of mySociety/UKCOD projects since 1996).
More recently, London-based organisations such as Newspeak House, Democracy Club and Citizen Beta have played a key role in growing and convening the UK civic tech scene, with regular meet-ups, crowd-sourcing projects and fellowship programmes.
Further north, The Federation in Manchester offers free working space for a thriving community of tech entrepreneurs tackling social issues and developing civic technology platforms.
Thanks in part to work by civic tech advocates, the UK saw the creation of the Government Digital Service (GDS) in 2011, which has transformed the provision of many online public services in the UK. Many of GDS’s digital models have been adopted by other countries around the world.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1590978982418{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #d0eaf2 !important;}”]
Suggested resources:
- Join the mySociety-Community mailing list to connect with almost 2,000 other civic tech enthusiasts in the UK
- Newspeak House – the London College of Political Technologists, who run residential fellowships and public meet-ups
- Citizen Beta – a regular meet-up in London for people working on civic technology, empowering citizens and transforming government
- GDS’s open government data
- OpenHeroines has a UK base (though it is a global network) – a community for those people working in open data, open government and civic tech who identify as women.