A Civic application is an

application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

designed to encourage users to participate in and learn more about government. Civic applications are often

social networking services A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

, but what distinguishes them is the civic goal–the mission funding their existence. Additionally, the mutual interaction between the user and the application is what differentiates civic applications from any IT service (i.e. a website or portal). With the latter, interaction between the user and the application is not necessary and often takes the form of commenting under articles. In civil societies, civic applications are created to enhance

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...

, and general

social capital Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships ...

. Civic applications can aim at: * development of engaged citizenship * strengthening of local communities * growth of democracy * supporting

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

* protection of nature and common living space Civic applications can be accessed online from a server via an Internet browser, using mobile devices such as mobile phones or tablets, and offline from the user's local drive.

Origins

On January 20, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the "Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government," requesting that government agencies make their data–such as real-time crime feeds and air-quality metrics–open and available to the public. This memorandum marked a pivotal legislative moment, as the government improved the distribution of public services through new technologies characterized by civic

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...

. The "Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government" also provided companies seeking to join the

civic technology Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supportin ...

world with a framework to build their civic applications. However, the history of civic applications can be traced back years earlier, with the creation of various civic technology platforms such as

Ushahidi Ushahidi is an open source software application which utilises user-generated reports to collate and map data. It uses the concept of crowdsourcing serving as an initial model for what has been coined as "activist mapping" - the combination o ...

, which supports election monitoring and crisis reporting, as well as

TheyWorkForYou TheyWorkForYou is a parliamentary monitoring website operated by mySociety which aims to make it easier for UK citizens to understand what is going on in Westminster, as well as the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembl ...

, which simplifies complex political information into

layman's terms Plain English (or layman's terms) are groups of words that are to be clear and easy to know. It usually avoids the use of rare words and uncommon euphemisms to explain the subject. Plain English wording is intended to be suitable for almost anyone, ...

for voters. Environment-focused civic applications also exist, such as Accela's Civic Application for Environmental Health. Today, many civic applications have been established, with civic technology leaders such as Jennifer Palka (

Code for America Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. According to its website, the organiza ...

) and Colin Megill ( Pol.is) paving the way for future innovation.

Current Applications

One potential benefit of civic applications is that they can help disseminate democracy. On social media applications, users have widespread access to political information, including the voting decisions of their elected representatives and information on legislative ballots. Civic applications can help streamline and clarify political information to improve voter competency. Additionally, politicians can use civic applications to bridge the communicative divide between government and their constituents. However, civic applications also have shortcomings. For example, many civic applications struggle with financial sustainability. Such applications often have either

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

corporate strategies, which prevent them from adopting stable strategies of fundraising and a majority end up failing from lack of income stream or funding.

Non-Governmental Organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

and public national institutions are noticing the value of civic applications and are inviting people working in the Information Technology domain to participate in their development (ex. in Greater Portland, Chicago, Boston, Boulder, Washington D.C, Seattle and other American cities as part of the

Code For America Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. According to its website, the organiza ...

initiative). Very often they are created as part of "hackathons", or IT development competitions which support entrepreneurial ventures. In 2008,

Vivek Kundra Vivek Kundra (born October 9, 1974) is a former American administrator who served as the first chief information officer of the United States from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama. He is currently the chief operating offi ...

hosted the first open government data

hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...

. The event, called "Apps for Democracy" invited outside civic hackers to make use of the city’s open data portal, leading to the creation of 47 apps. Civic applications are part of a greater concept of civic technologies, which encompass a variety of civic applications, software tools and platforms, and technology supporting local and national governments in performing public functions.

References

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Origins

Current Applications

References

Further reading