Civic Information Technology
A Civic Information Technology is an information technology that enables civic engagement.
- Context:
- It can (often) be an extension of Government-Supporting Technology.
- …
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Civic Application, Governmental Data Lake, Application Software, Public Good, Civil Society, Civic Engagement, Social Capital, Social Network Service.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://wikipedia.org/wiki/civic_technology Retrieved:2016-2-9.
- 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. It encompasses civic applications, platforms supporting government bodies, institutions and other software enabling those goals. The definition of what constitutes civic technology is contested to a certain extent, [1] especially with regards to companies engaged in the sharing 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. [2] 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." [3]
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, based in Chicago. The Chi Hack Night is a weekly, volunteer-run event for building, sharing and learning about 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. It encompasses civic applications, platforms supporting government bodies, institutions and other software enabling those goals. The definition of what constitutes civic technology is contested to a certain extent, [1] especially with regards to companies engaged in the sharing 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. [2] 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." [3]
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://wikipedia.org/wiki/civic_application Retrieved:2016-2-9.
- Civic application is application software aiming at users' activation to participate in public good development through this application. In civil societies, civic applications are created to enhance public good, civic engagement, and generally social capital.
Civic applications can for example aim at:
- development of engaged citizenship,
- strengthening of local communities,
- growth of democracy,
- supporting entrepreneurship,
- protection of nature and a common living space, etc.
- Civic applications are to some extent often social networking services, but what distinguishes them is the civic goal, the mission funding its existence.
Interaction between the user and the application is what differentiates civic applications from any IT service (website, portal) speaking about any citizen's topics, where interaction is not necessary and if exists often takes form of commenting under articles.
Civic application can be accessed from a server via an Internet browser (online) or using mobile devices, such as mobile phones or tablets (mobile), less often from user's local drive (offline).
Non-Governmental Organisations and public national institutions are noticing the value of the civic apps and invite people working in Information Technology domain to participate in their development (e.g. in Greater Portland, Chicago, Boston, Boulder, Washington D.C, Seattle and other American cities as part of the Code For America initiative ). Very often they are created as part of "hackatons", IT development competitions. Civic applications are part of a greater concept of civic technologies, which encompass variety of civic applications, together with any software tools and platforms, enabling its development or hosting, and the software supporting local and national governments in performing their public functions.
- Civic application is application software aiming at users' activation to participate in public good development through this application. In civil societies, civic applications are created to enhance public good, civic engagement, and generally social capital.
2015
- (Komninos et al., 2015) ⇒ Nicos Komninos, Charalambos Bratsas, Christina Kakderi, and Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos. (2015). “Smart City Ontologies: Improving the Effectiveness of Smart City Applications.” In: Journal of Smart Cities, 1(1).
- QUOTE: Table 1. Smart city applications assessed …