EngagingCities

Facebook live, citizen surveys, virtual meetings, oh my! From the newsroom to YouTube, jurisdictions face a maze of social media when they want to engage with the community. The Institute for Local Government explains that cities and counties are trying to connect with residents through nontraditional methods in order to reach community members where they are.

You may have heard that online surveys are dead. Even though you’re constantly being bombarded with emails and website pop ups requesting your valuable input in the form of an online survey. How ma…

In Akron, Ohio an alternative-news monthly called The Devil Strip serves to identify, connect and inspire people throughout the community. The newspaper helps bring Akronites together to envision and shape the city’s future.

A small town in Mexico was down to be one of the country’s first smart cities – but residents saw it as an attempt to westernise and leave tradition behind

Data for Democracy is a grassroots community dedicated to using the tools of Data Science to create a positive social impact. Imagine a bunch of digital activists running around the Internet analyzing alt-right Twitter bot networks and collecting data on immigration and family separations for the National Immigration Law Center, and you'll have a pretty good idea what this group does.

In the new book Mismatch, designer Kat Holmes demystifies the buzzy design process embraced by companies

Lessons from the Dutch, where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people.

An excerpt from Jeff Speck’s Walkable City Rules, a step-by-step guide to fixing America’s cities and towns.

Ecosystems are dynamic networks that emerge through connections between many actors. Civic tech and data ecosystems are shaped by interactions between local actors who use or create data and technology to improve civic life, specifically government services and other policies and programs that affect low-income residents. To better support and leverage local connections, ecosystem mapping is a process that allows people to visualize their network and understand how each organization in the community contributed or could contribute to common goals.

The Personal Democracy Forum conference has always been a celebration of technology’s role transforming politics and redefining democracy. But this year’s celebration included particularly strong notes of caution, like danah boyd’s talk on the unintended consequences of code, Mark Surman’s warning that internet freedom is shrinking and Mariana Ruiz Firmat’s reminder that equity within our organizations …

Are they a game or are they an app? Whichever, they offer a new approach to getting citizens involved in the crucial business of urban design.

This opinion piece was written by Grace O’Hara, the head of marketing at civic tech organisation Code for Australia.  Civic tech is a global movement of people working collaboratively with their governments to make the world a better place, and it’s well and truly in its unruly teenage years. As a community we’ve learnt how to walk, talk and for the most part, survive

August 18th marked the fifth year Code for Asheville has participated in the National Day of Civic Hacking. Members of the Asheville community showed up to learn how to request public records…

When cities lack the paths pedestrians need, people vote with their feet

We all know that solar is a practical, smart investment. It’s good for the environment, frees people to control their own electricity production and is one of the fastest-growing industries

Ever wonder what happened to civic tech startups like Vote.com, Voter.com, Hotsoup.com, Speakout.com, Ruck.us, Jumo, ChangeByUs, VoteIQ, or Votizen? Or maybe you’re thinking of starting something new in civic tech and want to learn from past efforts that didn’t succeed? As part of the work on the Civic Tech Field Guide, we’ve been fleshing out a section …

This guest post from Armi de Francia, School Travel Planning Facilitator at Green Communities Canada, marks the beginning of October, International Walk To School Month (“Walktober”). Walking to school (including walking with a mobility aid device) is more powerful than most people realize. It makes a difference, whether it happens a few times in the school …

President Obama and his presidential campaign made history in 2008 by employing community organizing tactics to engage large numbers of voters, building complex organizing structures which helped…

We’re excited to share the list of featured presenters in this year’s “D&D Showcase” — a highly anticipated, high-energy event held on the first night of the 2018 NCDD conference. The Showcase is a fun way for you to meet some of the movers-and-shakers in our field and learn about their leading-edge projects, programs, and tools.

Smart, sustainable, and minimalistic—these "location-independent, pay-as-you-live" prefab tiny homes introduce a new genre of urban living.

A community of night-time runners who soundtrack their jaunts to bass-heavy dance music is changing the face of urban running

Imagine you were working in development and poverty reduction in the early 1990s (I was!). Only one website existed in all the world in August 1991 (today there are over 1.5 billion). Mobile phones were expensive, rare, and clunky. Very few would anticipate a situation in which India would have more mobile phones than toilets. To paraphrase Bill Gates: we tend to overestimate the changes that will happen in the short term and underestimate those in the long term.

We wrapped the 7th Code for America Summit on Friday, and are delighted with the forward progress we made together as a community. It was an energizing and galvanizing event, and I’m so proud of the…

Urban transportation planners need to remember who the streets are for.

Protected bike lanes. Protected intersections. They’re all included in the draft version of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ new engineering manua…