Civic hacking

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.

Civic technology has had increasing promise and importance with time, as we currently live in a digital age, a period in which digital communications are the foundation for political and economic exchanges. As advanced technologies become commonplace in society and available throughout the population, many local governments and officials have begun utilizing them for public outreach and feedback. Specifically, the Internet is being used more for communication between governing officials and citizens.

The Obama-Biden administration utilized civic tech strategies in order to facilitate political participation of the average citizen. And local events known as "hackathons" are often hosted by tech-savvy groups of people with experience in fields such as computer programming, graphic design, and hardware and software programming. Hackathons focus on bettering software to make it more user friendly and easier for members of the community to access.

Another huge part of modern civic technology is social media. Companies such as Facebook and Twitter allow citizens from all over the U.S. and the world to communicate and share information. News outlets, such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts which allow them to post news articles to the sites. This creates an environment in which individuals have nearly instant access to news. These social media outlets also have mobile apps which allow users to access information from nearly anywhere on their phones, tablets, and laptops, making the sharing of information essentially instantaneous.

According to a study conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC), an estimated $6.4 billion will be spent on civic technology in 2015 out of approximately $25.5 billion that governments in the United States will spend on external-facing technology projects. A Knight Foundation survey of the civic technology field found that the number of civic technology companies grew by roughly 23% annually between 2008 and 2013.

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Wikipedia