About This Site
Civic Commons serves as a resource hub for civic technology, documenting the projects, applications, standards, and practices that help governments work better through open source software and shared digital infrastructure.
The site originally launched as a joint project to create a marketplace for civic technology, tracking applications used by government agencies and connecting jurisdictions that face similar challenges with shared software solutions. That mission remains relevant: governments continue to spend billions of dollars building custom software that duplicates what other agencies have already created, and the case for sharing civic technology has only grown stronger over time.
Our Focus
Documenting Civic Technology
Civic Commons catalogs civic technology applications, the government entities that use them, and the outcomes they produce. This documentation helps agencies discover existing solutions before investing in custom development and helps developers understand the landscape of civic technology needs.
Sharing Knowledge
Beyond software catalogs, the site provides articles, case studies, and analysis of civic technology adoption. These resources cover practical topics including open source procurement, government software policy, technical standards, and lessons learned from real-world deployments.
Connecting Communities
Civic technology succeeds when governments, developers, nonprofit organizations, and engaged citizens work together. The site serves as a meeting point for these communities, providing context and information that facilitates collaboration.
What Civic Technology Means
Civic technology is a broad term covering any technology that facilitates public engagement, improves government service delivery, or increases institutional transparency. It includes:
- Open source software developed for or by government agencies
- Open data platforms that make government information accessible to the public
- Citizen engagement tools that give residents a voice in policy decisions
- Standards and protocols that enable interoperability between government systems
- Digital services that simplify interactions between residents and their government
The field draws on principles from the open source software movement, the open data community, and the broader tradition of public interest technology. It recognizes that technology built with public resources should serve the public interest and that sharing solutions across jurisdictions produces better outcomes than isolated development.
History and Context
The civic technology movement gained significant momentum in the late 2000s and early 2010s, driven by several converging factors. The rise of smartphones put powerful computing devices in the hands of nearly every resident. Cloud computing dramatically reduced the cost of deploying software services. And a growing community of developers, advocates, and forward-thinking government officials began demonstrating that open, collaborative approaches could produce better government technology at lower cost.
Organizations including Code for America, the Sunlight Foundation, OpenPlans, and others helped catalyze this movement by funding projects, organizing communities, and advocating for policy changes. Government initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels further validated the approach by adopting open source software and publishing open data.
Civic Commons emerged from this environment as an attempt to address one of the movement’s persistent challenges: helping governments find and reuse the civic technology that already exists rather than building anew. That challenge remains central to the site’s purpose.
Values
The content on this site is guided by several principles:
- Transparency in documenting what works, what does not, and why
- Practical utility in providing information that helps agencies make better technology decisions
- Inclusivity in recognizing that civic technology serves diverse communities with diverse needs
- Open access in making all content freely available to anyone who can benefit from it
- Evidence-based analysis in grounding recommendations in real-world experience rather than speculation
Contact
For questions about the content on this site or to suggest topics for coverage, please visit the Contact page.