5 key takeaways from the Nesta Government Innovation Summit
Where will governments be in 30 years? What are the main challenges civil servants will be facing in the next decade? What does the future of citizen participation look like? The Nesta Government Innovation Summit...
Monthly Civic Tech must-reads #1
Welcome democracy fanatics, outspoken citizens, dedicated political leaders, techies, and everyone in between. This is our first curated list of Monthly civic tech must-reads! This month we are exploring a wide...
What is the difference between artificial and collective intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence, Collective Intelligence… these notions might sound like they come from coming from a distant future, but they are actually becoming reality. Both hold great promises, and both have...
Citizen Initiatives: a new feature to increase citizens’ say in policy-making
The time of top-down governance is coming to an end. As demands for more transparency and citizen involvement are growing, citizen-led change is happening everywhere across the world. Whether it’s on social...
What’s the difference between deliberative and participatory democracy?
Deliberative and participatory democracy seem to be pretty similar. And they are, in ways: both are democratic systems that give citizens a role in governance. In both deliberative and participatory democracies,...
Civic tech tools and the future of elections
Civic tech is now everywhere. Technological innovations have invaded the democratic field, and these tools are in the process of reinventing the way local governments interact with their citizens. From...
5 political documentaries to watch this autumn
As the nights are getting crisp and summer is slowly fading, we’re spending more and more time indoors. But that doesn’t mean we have to hibernate. As it turns out, Netflix streams a wide range of...
Civic tech reads of the week #28
Hello civic tech enthusiasts, hello smart city nerds, hello citizen participation fans! Summer might be almost over, but new digital democracy projects are starting all over the world. Here’s what we’ve...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #27
For all you democracy devotees and civic tech connoisseurs, here’s our brand-new weekly reading list! This week we’re discussing city health, AI, training the leaders of today, populism, and a...
Citizen Initiatives in Europe: an introduction
Citizen initiatives are participatory tools that allow citizens to influence their local institutions by collecting signatures. They generally don’t require a lot of effort and have the potential to reach a wide...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #26
Happy Friday, dear readers! We hope you’re unwinding on a beach or tasting wine in a charming French village. But in case you’re not, we have a brand-new selection of interesting civic tech reads to...
Case Study: a tidal wave of ideas in Leuven
The Flemish city of Leuven (101,000 inhabitants) has made the leap towards citizen participation. With the slogan “Leuven, maak het mee” (a play on words that implies both “experience the...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #25
To all you city administrators, citizens, techies and democracy enthusiasts: welcome to the 25th edition of our weekly Reading List! 25 weeks ago we decided to browse the web for the most interesting civic...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #24
Another week has flown by, and as always, we celebrate the weekend with a selection of must-reads. This week we’re talking about strengthening citizens’ digital skills, AI commissions, the new wave of...
![18 civic tech podcasts you should be listening to [Updated]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-14-at-13.54.58-500x282.jpg)
18 civic tech podcasts you should be listening to [Updated]
Brushing up on civic tech and digital democracy while you’re on the bus, doing groceries or even running your 5k? All hail to podcasts! We carry a goldmine of information in our pockets at all times, and a podcast...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #23
Good news! It’s Friday, and we have a new selection of must-reads hotter than this heatwave. Do happy citizens make for healthier cities? Can tech startups play a role in increasing citizens’ wellbeing?...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #22
Welcome to our weekly reading list! As always, we’ve selected the hottest reads from the realm of civic tech. This week we’re talking about smart cities, digital authoritarianism, geriatric selfies,...
CitizenLab in 8 key numbers: this was 2019 so far
We’re almost halfway through 2019, and that’s always a good excuse to look back and reflect. The last six months have been a wild ride. That’s why we thought it would be interesting to look at at...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #21
If you read this, that probably means 3 things: 1) you’re not napping on some faraway beach, but 2) the weekend is almost here and 3) we’ve got a new selection of civic tech must-reads ready for you! If...
The barriers to citizen participation: why aren’t cities doing ‘more’?
Our cities are becoming increasingly more technological in nature, but somehow, digital participation isn’t always growing accordingly. What are the main barriers to citizen participation? Recently,...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #20
Welcome to this special edition of Reads of the Week! It’s our platinum anniversary! And as always, we’re happy to feed you the best bits of civic tech we could find. Feeling nostalgic already? Head to...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #19
It’s Friday, it’s summer, and there’s a fresh Reads of the Week-list: your weekend surely got off on the right foot. But let’s not beat around the bush too much, because it’s almost as...
5 ways to convince citizens to trust and use your platform
When setting up a participation platform, the matter of trust is something that pops up quite often. We live in an era where online privacy is a vague concept and citizen’s trust in their governments seems to...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #18
It’s Friday, and this week our must-reads from the realm of civic tech are taking us to all corners of the globe. Are you ready for a trip around the world? If you prefer to stay on familiar ground for now,...
Inclusion in e-democracy: 7 tips for setting up an inclusive online participation project
Setting up an inclusive participation project is easier said than done. Luckily, there are a few things that’ll get you on the right track in no time. For more advice on inclusivity, download our full guide...
How much does a citizen participation platform cost?
When it comes to citizen participation, cost is often the elephant in the room. It is often cited as one of the main barriers for cities and local governments hesitant to launch participation projects. Large scale...
‘Slacktivism’: Legitimate Action or Just Lazy Liking?
It sounds like a contradictio in terminis, like ‘sound of silence’ or ‘sensible Twitter debate’. But ‘slacktivism’, a contraction of ‘activism’ and uh, ‘slacking’, has become a widespread phenomenon that urges us...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #16
Only a few things in life are certain, and our weekly selection of must-reads is one of them. Every week, we gather our favourite reads on the topics of civic tech, democracy and data, and we share them with you in...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #15
Happy Friday to you, dear reader! Can you believe this is already the 15th edition of our recurring Reads of the Week selections? If you’ve been following us from the start, we’d love to thank you for such...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #14
Another week has flown by, and the weekend is so close we can almost touch it! Like every Friday, we’re here to cheer up your day with our hand-picked selection of interesting reads of the week. Everything you...
Our 5 take-aways from #govtech talks at Impact2019
Did you make it to the Impact conference? This annual event is about innovation and digital economy, with conversations about the future of health, finance, education, space… and of course governments....
How to increase engagement on a participation platform
The launch of a participation platform can have a decisive influence on the rest of the project, but it’s often overlooked for lack of time or resources. In order to reach as many citizens as possible and...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #12
It’s Friday again, and we’ve got a fresh catch of democracy, civic tech and smart city news ready for you! As you know (unless you’re new here, in which case: hi!), we craft a new selection of...
Applying artificial intelligence to citizen participation: the Youth4Climate case study
Youth for Climate used CitizenLab’s NLP technology to turn thousands of citizen contributions into concise and actionable insights. Here’s what we learned from analysing over 1,700 ideas. On August 20, a 15 year...
The human factor: helping governments tap into collective intelligence
Can natural language processing and machine learning technologies foster quicker political response to citizen views on digital democracy platforms? With the Nesta Collective Intelligence Grants Programme, this is...
Natural Language Processing at CitizenLab: how machine learning can transform citizen engagement projects.
This article has been written in close collaboration with the NLP experts at NLP Town, who supported us through our own NLP journey. Will robots take over the world? Probably not. However, NLP (or Natural Language...
