Using technology to improve democracy has long been a goal of activists, technologists, and citizens alike. Today there are hundreds of tools for both government offices and citizens. Offices use them to improve governance and increase participation. Citizens use them to organize and even create new democratic systems. Whatever your needs are, there’s an application out there for you.
Leading the charge is the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Launched in 2011, the OGP includes over 75 member countries. Governments, together with civil society organizations, are working to advance their goals. Their mission is to make governance more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. OGP provides useful resources to help open governments at the national and subnational level. Visit their site to see templates, guides, and trainings.
One of their newest tools is the OGP Toolbox. The Toolbox (pictured above) has examples of existing open government projects and the applications that support them. You can sort the lists of case studies, tools, and organizations based on your needs. The examples range from across their membership, so results are in multiple languages. Take a swing at their interactive sorting, or use the search. Below are the top-level categories, using the tool you can get more specific.
- debate
- public services
- mapping
- open parliament
- voting
- crowdsourcing
- participation
- issue reporting
- visualization
- portal
- local
- forum
- elected representatives
- consultation
- transparency
- data
- lawmaking
- open data
- collaborative
As of this writing, the toolbox boasts 212 use cases, 1342 tools, and 545 organizations. This is a great repository for anyone looking for practical cyber democracy applications. Got an idea to improve democracy? Try the OGP Toolbox here.
Originally published on May 1, 2017.
