Engagement Commons: A new tool to empower civic engagement

Nick Grossman
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:23:35 +0000
News

Crossposted on KnightBlog.org

With the explosion of open data, we’ve seen a proliferation of civic software aiming to get community information on everything from road closures to restaurant inspections into people’s hands.

The apps have great potential for engaging people in improving their communities. But often the people closest to the data — city leaders and staffers — have a difficult time finding and weeding through all the software to determine what’s right for both their needs and their community.

That’s why we’re building Engagement Commons, a comprehensive catalogue of civic engagement software. It’s a project of Civic Commons, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Technology for Engagement Initiative, which funds projects that use technology to inspire on-the-ground action.

Specifically, Engagement Commons is a dynamic wiki, an editable catalogue of applications that foster civic engagement. The catalogue will include comprehensive information regarding the purpose, features and uses of each application; reviews of each app; technical requirements and options for deploying the app; as well as listings of locations each app is being used in.

Want to encourage art creation and appreciation throughout your city? Search the Engagement Commons to find tools like Public Art App. This innovative app currently allows community members to define and discover art throughout the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco. Open source, this app can be deployed anywhere.

How about putting the power to improve the community back in the hands of the people? Check out SeeClickFix. This application allows anyone to report and track non-emergency issues, anywhere. In turn, empowering both government departments and community groups to resolve the cities issues.

These are just two of the many applications that will be available for discovery in Engagement Commons.

As Damian Thorman, Knight Foundation’s national program director said, “We hope this new platform will allow cities to find creative ways to better connect to and engage their citizens in real time.”

So keep an eye out. Engagement Commons will be up an running Spring 2012.