What's the biggest lesson the Smart Chicago Collaborative has learned in the world of civic technology? In short: more community, less tech.
Continue readingWhy are states replacing email with flawed web forms for contacting lawmakers?
Providing email addresses to contact state legislators is easy and effective — but more and more states are replacing them with inaccessible, buggy web forms. Help us get back on the right track!
Continue readingWhat are APIs? Why they matter and how to use them
Ever heard of an API, but have no idea what it is? Fear not! In this post, we'll give a quick rundown of what APIs are, why they're so valuable and how to use them.
Continue readingLessons from Ukraine: Improving civic tech with human-centered design
Two Sunlighters recently spent 10 days in Ukraine, meeting with local activists that are fighting corruption and increasing accountability. While there, we learned some valuable lessons to integrate into our own work.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Bringing understanding and engagement to public budgets
Creating a budget is one of the most important tasks of government, but citizens are more disconnected from this process than ever. The interactive web app Balancing Act seeks to change that.
Continue readingWhite House makes Presidential Innovation Fellows program permanent
Great news for the world of civic tech: President Barack Obama has signed an executive order making the Presidential Innovation Fellows program permanent.
Continue readingTwitter shuts down 30 international versions of Politwoops
Over the weekend, Twitter shut down all remaining Politwoops sites in 30 countries around the world.
Continue readingOpenFEC API makes new itemized data available
Not long after we released our initial how-to introducing the new OpenFEC API, the 18F team announced that they were making even more available. Our followup post introduces some of the new additions and why they're so important.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Using open data to analyze crime in New Orleans
Analyzing publicly available criminal justice data is painting a much fuller picture of crime in New Orleans.
Continue readingTrack which federal websites are using HTTPS with Pulse
A new online tool called Pulse allows anyone to monitor which federal websites are utilizing HTTPS.
Continue reading
59063
