Based on lectures at UChicago, Code for America, and conferences around the world, the Civic Technology Academy features best practices and lessons for innovators — current or future, private or public — with a focus on getting the job done.
Civic Tech & Smart Cities Primer
Background materials on the definition and impact of civic technology
2022 GovTech Tailwinds
Why 2022 should be an even bigger year for the government technology industry: changing leaders, staff, and expectations
Data and Dashboards
Dashboards, Performance Management, and the Trouble with Different Kinds of Data
Building a startup community
Building an economic development strategy to level-up a city's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem
Working with City Hall
Guides to the politics and operations of local government
Civic Tech Career Resources
Find opportunities to learn more, as well as jobs, funding, mentorship, and much, much more
Managing an Open Data Program
Four principles for running a successful open data program are UI, UX, community, and challenges.
GovTech Market Data
A practical overview of the trends in the $200B+ in government IT spending
Data-Driven Policy Making
Myth versus Reality in two slides
GovTech Market Sizing
Most people get this very wrong, but getting it right is not hard.
Lean Government
How to build responsive, modern software within the public sector
Permitting & Licensing Tech
An ecosystem map of permitting, licensing, and code enforcement (PLC) technologyUniversity of Chicago Civic Technology Lectures
Part theory, and part technical, with a focus on the characteristics unique to public interest tech, this graduate-level course was designed and delivered in 2019 for the University of Chicago Masters in Computational Analysis and Public Policy (MS-CAPP) program, where I was a visiting lecturer. There were 16 lectures total delivered between April and June 2019. Slides from each class are posted here for viewing, sharing, or downloading, per a Free Culture license.
- Lecture 1: What is Civic Tech?
- Lecture 2-3: Empathy and the GovTech Ecosystem
- Lecture 4-5: Applying Lean Principles to Civic Technology
- Lecture 6: How Civic Data Works
- Lecture 7: Why and Where Open Data - The Value Proposition and Accessibilty of Open Civic Data
- Lecture 8: Which and How Open Data - The Mechanics of Open Civic Data
- Lecture 9: Optimizing Open Data - Best Practices in *Publishing* Open Data
- Lecture 10: Open Data, Simply Seen - Best Practices in *Visualizing* Open Data
- Lecture 11: Digital Services, an Introduction
- Lecture 12: Digital Services, Where and How
- Lecture 13: Growth and Adoption - Getting to Users
- Lecture 14: Procurement, Challenges and Opportunities
- Lecture 15-16: Application and Impact Sustainability
Case Studies
Putting Sacramento On the Map: Case study on building an economic development strategy to level-up a city's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem
Boosting Government Responsiveness with Data Science: Helping ZenCity Make AI Real, and Really Useful for Small Cities
Enabling Data-Driven Decisions in LA: How building a showpiece unveiled the real challenges of PerformanceStat
How technology can increase trust between law enforcement and residents: Starting with a simple text reminders, SPIDR Tech's platform now enables realtime communication and feedback between the community and government
Boosting transparency around police use of force: Data collection problems can stifle reform efforts that rely on data, such as the New Jersey effort to create an "early warning" system for abuse
Letting governments build their own workflows on CityGrows: Accessible and affordable workflow automation for local governments to replace paper forms and pdfs in minutes
Abhi Nemani
