My whole career, I've been searching for ways to give everyone fighting for the common good an edge over the competition.
I've been inspired by the millions of people practicing digital democracy. They're connecting citizens to decision-making power, upgrading government, campaigning for a better world, opening data, powering journalism. They're fighting the unethical use of technology itself, like disinformation, while fighting to restore digital rights and cybersecurity.
They're fighting these battles all over the world, from mature democracies to active autocracies. Through creative games, maps, and art, they're even having fun doing it. Establishing a foundation of civic and digital literacy, accessibility, and inclusion, they're forging new modes of working.
What if there was a place to find each other? To get beyond the narrow, self-serving nomenclature of civic tech, public interest tech, ethical tech, and whatever term comes next? To look past our own to gain inspiration from the best?
We help over 50,000 people per month keep up with the latest launches. To develop partnerships with peers fighting the same fights. The Civic Tech Field Guide will jump-start your own efforts to build something with open source code and freely available data, find funding, not to mention pointing you to related efforts.
What if we developed this fledgling sector into a deeply interconnected movement? By helping talent find jobs, connecting professionals to relevant events and funding opportunities, and introducing generations of students to learn about this line of work through academia and online education. Enriching communities, online and in-person, all while evaluating our impact and learning from what hasn't worked, so we can sustain the things that do.
All while keeping up with the latest possibilities of emerging tech like AI without accepting its harms as a foregone conclusion. So that we can grow the field of digital democracy, and work together to realize our missions.
Sound worthwhile?
The Civic Tech Field Guide is your map. It's your place to find and be found. And it's as good as you make it.
Volunteer to improve the open source site and its coverage with your own skills and expertise. (Git pull requests welcome!)
Promote your work and the work that inspires you.
Fund this digital commons resource to keep it online and available to all.
Drop us a note, we'd love to hear from you.
Subscribe to updates -- we send emails a few times per month.
We post open jobs on our LinkedIn page, events and deadlines on Mastodon and X, and community stickers on Instagram.