Dispatches from Civic Space # 1
On February 2nd we hosted a work session in collaboration with some friends at Civic Tech Toronto.
Civic Tech Toronto is a community of Torontonians that meets every Tuesday, working on understanding and solving civic challenges with technology.
They have been meeting consistently for the last 10 years and leading the charge on civic technology in North America.
Their meets on Tuesday evenings are hybrid remote + in-person, and usually feature a speaker presenting an interesting application of technology in the civic space + time to break out into working groups. Anyone can host a breakout room, with topics that range from a book club, to discussions with the speaker for the evening, to work sessions for existing projects.
This is where the idea of hosting a co-working session came from. The projects Civic Tech folks work on are often ongoing for months and breakouts typically occupy the last portion of the evening and only last about 1 hour, so there isn't a lot of time for focused work.
Civic Space provided a collaborative environment where project contributors could dedicate focused time to their solutions, while also welcoming new folks to learn about the space and contribute.
Are you wondering what kind of projects we worked on? Here's a quick overview.
Polis | 🔗 https://pol.is/home
Polis is an online public engagement tool designed to find consensus. It differs from social media platforms in two key ways:
- There is no reply button on comments.
- The ranking algorithm rewards comments that bridge divides.
The Civic Tech Toronto group working on Polis thinks the software can benefit city councillors by surfacing the ideas all residents can rally around.
Civic Dashboard | 🔗 https://civicdashboard.ca/
The team behind Civic Dashboard thinks that engaging in Toronto's civic life should be way easier than it is now. They're tackling this issue from 4 angles:
- Council Explanation - a clear, concise, engaging explanation of how Toronto’s City Council works and where you fit in.
- Item Search - a search that precisely and accurately shows all Council items relevant to your topic of interest and the pertinent info about each.
- Call To Action - see all upcoming Council items, find and take action on the relevant ones in 1 click.
- Councillor Page - see your Councillor’s voting record and whether it aligns with you.
Bikespace | 🔗 https://bikespace.ca/
Bikespace helps citizens map where we need more and better bike parking in Toronto.
The core of bikespace is a web app which cyclists can use to report bicycle parking issues such as places where bicycle parking is not provided at all, bicycle parking that is full, damaged bicycle parking that cannot be used, abandoned bicycles locked to parking, and others.
The data collected is shared with the Street Furniture office (yes, you read right!) every month, and displayed on an interactive dashboard that you can explore at https://bikespace.ca/dashboard
This project was nominated for the City’s new Open Data Awards last year - if this isn't cool enough for you, I don't know what is!
Alongside the project work, some Civic Tech Toronto members spent the session refining the community’s archive—a collection of past speakers, events, and projects from the last decade years of meetups. The archive is a valuable resource for anyone looking to explore the impact of civic tech in Toronto over the past decade.
If you're curious to see the archive is currently available as an obsidian friendly set of markdown files with yaml frontmatter – you can check out the archive here.
what's next
At a time when authoritarianism is on the rise, and (real and aspiring) oligarchs want us to believe that democracy is inherently flawed and that governance should be reformed by replacing civil servants and government agencies with AIs and ruthless automation, technology can feel like a tool for oppression.
This is a very bleak way of looking at the world – I can't think of a better time to reclaim optimism and technology for the benefit of our communities and imagine solutions that can improve the way we engage in our society.
That's what Civic Tech Toronto has been doing for the past 10 years and that's why we're going to bring back Civic Space on the second Sunday of every month ✨
