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 2005 book Beyond the Ballot, used the following categorization of democratic innovations:
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CitizenLab |
Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, Koen Gremmelprez |
September 2015 - Present |
For profit |
Brussels, Belgium |
Proprietary software |
E-democracy innovation, Consultation innovation |
|||||
Pol.is |
Colin Megill, Christopher Small and Michael Bjorkegren |
-Present |
501(c)3 |
Seattle, WA |
Yes |
Deliberative Democracy |
AGPL v3 |
||||
Countable (app) |
Bart Myers, Peter Arzintar |
July 2014 – Present |
For profit |
San Francisco, California, United States |
Non-partisan |
||||||
Loomio |
Ben Knight |
Nov 1, 2012 - Present |
For profit |
Wellington, New Zealand |
Ruby, JavaScript |
Deliberative Innovation |
AGPL v3 |
Crowdfunding |
|||
DemocracyOS |
Pia Mancini, Santiago Siri |
2012 - Present |
Non profit |
Palo Alto, California, United States |
Democracy Earth Foundation |
Net Party |
JavaScript |
Direct Democracy Innovation |
GPL v3 |
Y Combinator, Teespring |
|
VotingWorks |
Ben Adida |
2018–present |
501(c)3 |
San Francisco, CA |
n/a |
Yes |
Open-source voting system |
||||
GovTrack |
Joshua Tauberer |
2003 - Present |
Washington, District of Columbia, United States |
Civic Impulse, LLC |
Django |
Crowdfunding |
|||||
NGP Van |
Mark T. Sullivan, Nathaniel Pearlman |
1997–present |
For profit |
Washington, DC, United States |
Democratic and Progressive Campaigns |
Proprietary software |
E-democracy innovation |
||||
OpenGov |
Joe Lonsdale, Mike Rosengarten, Nate Levine, Zac Bookman |
2012–present |
For profit |
Redwood City, California, United States |
JavaScript, Ruby, Java, Python |
Emerson Collective |
|||||
Hustle |
Perry Rosenstein, Roddy Lindsay, Tyler Brock |
Dec 2014 |
For profit |
San Francisco, California, United States |
Proprietary software |
Electoral Innovation |
Social Capital (venture capital) |
||||
Resistbot |
Jason Putorti, Eric Ries |
2017–present |
501c4 |
Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States |
Resistbot Action Fund |
Non-partisan |
Python, Amazon Web Services, RapidPro, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL |
Yes |
Electoral innovations, Consultation innovations, Co-governance innovations, E-democracy innovations |
CC0 |
|
LiquidFeedback |
Andreas Nitsche, Jan Behrens, Axel Kistner and Bjoern Swierczek |
November 2009 |
Berlin, Germany |
Public Software Group, Interaktive Demokratie, FlexiGuided GmbH |
Lua (programming language), PL/pgSQL |
Deliberative Innovation |
MIT License |
||||
TurboVote |
Kathryn Peters, Seth Flaxman |
2010–present |
For profit |
Democracy Works |
Proprietary software |
Electoral Innovation |
|||||
We The People |
Obama administration |
September 2011 – Present |
Government Agency |
Washington, DC, United States |
Democratic Party |
JavaScript, PHP, CSS |
Co-governance Innovation |
GNU General Public License |
United States Government |
||
Voatz |
Nimit S. Sawhney |
2014–present |
For profit |
Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
Go |
Electoral Innovation |
Medici Ventures |
||||
Helios Voting |
Ben Adida |
2008–present |
Non profit |
Python, JavaScript, HTML |
Direct Democracy Innovation |
Apache License |
|||||
U Report |
UNICEF Innovation |
May 2011 – Present |
Non profit |
New York, United States |
UNICEF |
Python, HTML, CSS |
Consultation Innovation |
GNU Affero General Public License |
|||
Maji Voice |
Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) |
2012–present |
Government Agency |
Nairobi, Kenya |
Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) |
Open Source |
Consultation Innovation |
GNU General Public License |
World Bank Water and Sanitation Program |
||
Democracy 2.1 |
Karel Janeček |
2013–present |
Prague Municipal District, Czech Republic |
Proprietary software |
Direct Democracy Innovation |
||||||
Secure Vote |
Max Kaye, Nathan Spataro |
2016–present |
New South Wales, Australia |
Python, HTML, Shell, Blockchain |
Direct Democracy Innovation |
MIT License |
|||||
Brigade |
James Windon, Jason Putorti, John Thrall, Matt Mahan, Miche Capone |
Jun 11, 2014 - May 1, 2019 |
For profit |
San Francisco, California, United States |
Brigade Media |
Proprietary software |
Electoral Innovation, Deliberative Innovation |
Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Sean Parker |
See also
- Comparison of Internet forum software
- Liquid democracy
- Open government
- Argument mapping