Civic Tech
Civic tech brings digital innovation to governments and administrations to create new and better opportunities for citizens. Civic tech applications, tools and services are often powered by open data.
Civic tech is developed by citizens, for citizens. These “civic hackers” are volunteer developers, designers and data enthusiasts with broad technical expertise. The software applications, devices and platforms they create simplify people’s everyday lives or improve communication and networking between citizens, communities, politicians and administrations. These technologies provide a society with better access to information and can strengthen the public discourse. The goals are twofold: to enable greater political participation; and to promote government transparency, which can lead to more accountability (see also: Open Government).
In line with the open source approach, these tools are made freely available to the public. Others can use them and further develop them according to their specific needs, without having to take into account conditions or restrictions imposed by governments or companies.