Comparison of civic technology platforms

Civic technology is technology that enables engagement and participation, or enhances the relationship between the people and government, by enhancing citizen communications and public decision, improving government delivery of services and infrastructure. This comparison of civic technology platforms compares platforms that are designed to improve citizen participation in governance, distinguished from technology that directly deals with government infrastructure.

Platform types

Graham Smith of the University of Southampton, in his book Beyond the Ballot, used the following categorization of democratic innovations:[1]

  • Electoral innovations – "aim to increase electoral turnout"
  • Consultation innovations – "aim to inform decision-makers of citizens' views"
  • Deliberative innovations – "aim to bring citizens together to deliberate on policy issues, the outcomes of which may influence decision-makers"
  • Co-governance innovations – "aim to give citizens significant influence during the process of decision-making"
  • Direct democracy innovations – "aim to give citizens final decision-making power on key issues"
  • E-democracy innovations – "use information technology to engage citizens in the decision-making process"

Comparison chart
Platform Name Founder Dates Active Corporate Structure Geography Parent Company Party Affiliation Technology Used Open Source Platform Type Software License Primary Funders
Brigade James Windon, Jason Putorti, John Thrall, Matt Mahan, Miche Capone Jun 11, 2014[2] - May 1, 2019[3] For Profit San Francisco, California, United States[4] Brigade Media Proprietary software No Electoral Innovation, Deliberative Innovation Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Sean Parker[5]
CitizenLab Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, Koen Gremmelprez[6] September 2015[7] - Present For Profit Brussels, Belgium[8] Proprietary software No E-democracy innovation, Consultation innovation
Civocracy Chloe Pahud, Benjamin Snow 2015-Present For Profit Berlin, Germany Proprietary software No Participation

Consultation

Innovation

Data Insights
CONSUL Miguel Arana Catania[9] September 2015[10] - Present Government Agency[11] Madrid, Spain[12] Ruby on Rails[13] Yes AGPL v3[14] Public
Countable (app) Bart Myers, Peter Arzintar[15] July 2014 - Present[15] For Profit San Francisco, California, United States Non-partisan
Loomio Ben Knight Nov 1, 2012 - Present For Profit Wellington, New Zealand Ruby, Javascript[16] Yes Deliberative Innovation AGPL v3[17] Crowdfunding[18]
DemocracyOS Pia Mancini, Santiago Siri 2012 - Present Non Profit Palo Alto, California, United States Democracy Earth Foundation Net Party[19] JavaScript[20] Yes Direct Democracy Innovation GPL v3[21] Y Combinator, Teespring
GovTrack Joshua Tauberer[22] 2003[23] - Present Washington, District of Columbia, United States Civic Impulse, LLC[24] Django[25] Yes Crowdfunding
Fluicity Julie de Pimodan, Jonathan Meiss, Nicolas de Briey[26] July 2015[27] - Present For Profit Paris, France[26] Proprietary software No Consultation Innovation
Hustle Perry Rosenstein, Roddy Lindsay, Tyler Brock Dec 2014 For Profit San Francisco, California, United States Proprietary software No Electoral Innovation Social Capital (venture capital)
Capitol Bells Ted Henderson 2013 - Present For Profit Washington, DC, United States Proprietary software No Consultation Innovation
NGP Van Mark T. Sullivan, Nathaniel Pearlman 1997–Present For Profit Washington, DC, United States Democratic and Progressive Campaigns Proprietary software No E-democracy innovation
LiquidFeedback Andreas Nitsche, Jan Behrens, Axel Kistner and Bjoern Swierczek[28] November 2009[29] Berlin, Germany[30] Public Software Group, Interaktive Demokratie, FlexiGuided GmbH[29] German Pirate Party Lua (programming language), PL/pgSQL Yes Deliberative Innovation MIT License
OpenGov Joe Lonsdale, Mike Rosengarten, Nate Levine, Zac Bookman 2012–Present For Profit Redwood City, California, United States JavaScript, Ruby, Java, Python Yes Emerson Collective
PopVox Marci Harris 2010–Present For Profit Washington, DC, United States Proprietary software No Consultation Innovation
Resistbot Jason Putorti, Eric Ries 2017–Present 501c4 Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States[31] Resistbot Action Fund Non-partisan Python, Amazon Web Services, RapidPro, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL Yes[32] Electoral innovations, Consultation innovations, Co-governance innovations, E-democracy innovations CC0
Turbovote Kathryn Peters, Seth Flaxman 2010–Present For Profit Democracy Works[33] Proprietary software No Electoral Innovation
iSideWith Taylor Peck, Nick Boutelier[34] March 2012 – Present[34] Los Angeles, California, United States[34] Non-partisan[34] Amazon AWS, Facebook API, Twitter API, PHP, PostgreSQL, Postgis, Perl, Ubuntu Server, Apache, HTML, CSS, SVG, JQuery, GeoIP, Google Analytics[35] No Electoral Innovation
We The People Obama administration September 2011 – Present Government Agency Washington, DC, United States Democratic Party JavaScript, PHP, CSS[36] Yes Co-governance Innovation GNU General Public License[36] United States Government
Voatz Nimit S. Sawhney 2014–Present For Profit Boston, Massachusetts, United States[37] Go[38] No Electoral Innovation Medici Ventures
Helios Voting Ben Adida 2008–Present[39] Non Profit Python, JavaScript, HTML[40] Yes Direct Democracy Innovation Apache License[40]
U Report UNICEF Innovation[41] May 2011 – Present[42] Non Profit New York, United States UNICEF Python, HTML, CSS[43] Yes Consultation Innovation GNU Affero General Public License[43]
Maji Voice Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) 2012–Present[44] Government Agency Nairobi, Kenya Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) Open Source[44] Yes Consultation Innovation GNU General Public License[45] World Bank Water and Sanitation Program[44]
Democracy 2.1 Karel Janeček 2013–Present Prague Municipal District, Czech Republic Proprietary software No Direct Democracy Innovation
Secure Vote Max Kaye, Nathan Spataro[46] 2016–Present[46] New South Wales, Australia[46] Python, HTML, Shell,[47] Blockchain[46] No Direct Democracy Innovation MIT License
Together ''SCIENCE FOR YOU'' N.G.O. - SciFY 2018–Present Non Profit Greece ''SCIENCE FOR YOU'' N.G.O. - SciFY Open Source:[44] JavaScript, PHP, CSS[36] Yes Citizen participation Apache License[40]
Spilno Oleh Chsalvskyi, Alexander Shepetko, Serhey Zakapko 2018–Present Non Profit Ukraine Ukrmedia Python, HTML, CSS No Digital Democracy Ecosystem, E-democracy social network

See also

References
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  2. "Sean Parker's Brigade Media Acquires Causes In Its Quest To Revitalize American Democracy". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
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  11. www.commonstransition.org http://commonstransition.org/this-is-how-people-power-wins-an-election-the-story-of-ahora-madrid/. Retrieved 2019-01-19. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. www.commonstransition.org http://commonstransition.org/this-is-how-people-power-wins-an-election-the-story-of-ahora-madrid/. Retrieved 2019-01-19. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. www.github.com https://github.com/consul/consul. Retrieved 2019-01-19. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. GitHub https://github.com/consul/consul/blob/master/LICENSE-AGPLv3.txt. Retrieved 2019-01-19. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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  29. "Information Kit (PDF)" (PDF).
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  32. Form definitions powering Resistbot's electronic deliveries to elected officials in the United States.: resistbot/contact-officials, Resistbot, 2019-12-30, retrieved 2019-12-31
  33. "Democracy Works: Democracy Fund". www.democracyfund.org. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  34. "About iSideWith.com". iSideWith. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  35. Boutelier, Nick. "LinkedIn".
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  39. Adida, Marneffe, Pereira, Quisquater, Ben, Olivier, Olivier, Jean-Jacques. "Electing a University President using Open-Audit Voting: Analysis of real-world use of Helios" (PDF).CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  41. "U-Report: Ilhasoft's application for Unicef - Ilhasoft". Ilhasoft. 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
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  46. "SecureVote". Techboard. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
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