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The Emergence of Civic Tech: Investments in a Growing Field

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The Emergence of Civic Tech: Investments in a Growing Field The Emergence of Civic Tech: Investments in a Growing Field December 2013 2 About At Knight Foundation, we strive to Knight embarked on an analysis earlier support informed and engaged this year to examine clusters of inno- communities. With the proliferation of vation and investment within the field technology in everyday life over the of civic tech. Rather than performing a past decade, Knight has increasingly run-of-the-mill landscape review with funded new technologies designed to stakeholder interviews, we decided to improve the health and vitality of experiment with a new set of research cities. Since 2010, Knight has invested tools. We partnered with Quid, a firm more than $25 million in such that specializes in data analytics and projects, ranging from government network analysis, to map the field of data access platforms to new tools for civic tech through semantic analysis community planning to online neigh- and private and philanthropic Authors borhood forums. investment data. Mayur Patel VP/Strategy and Assessment Over the past two years, we’ve This report summarizes key findings Knight Foundation witnessed through our work a and implications from the analysis. groundswell of interest at the nexus of We hope this experiment will be Jon Sotsky technology, civic innovation, open valuable to those interested in the Director/Strategy and Assessment government and resident field of civic tech as well as organiza- Knight Foundation engagement. Though the terminology tions looking to advance the use of may vary, more and more funders, big data in the social sector. This study Sean Gourley investors and practitioners have joined is a first foray into analyzing the civic Co-founder & CTO this emerging “civic tech” field. We tech landscape but is certainly not an Quid began to wonder: How can practi- exhaustive analysis. We look forward tioners supporting civic tech form to continued partnerships with others Daniel Houghton stronger connections, and how can to advance learning and practice in Engagement Manager we gather better insights into the this field. Quid trends in the field? 3 Contents OVERVIEW Objectives & Approach MAPPING THE FIELD Themes & Trends INNOVATION CLUSTERS Investment Activity & Distribution INVESTOR ANALYSIS Funding Sources & Types of Capital TAKEAWAYS Strategic Implications & Next Steps 4 This section examines: OBJECTIVES What are the main questions explored in the study? Overview DEFINITION What is “civic tech”? SCOPE What types of organizations and investment are included in the analysis? 5 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Further analyze the data gathered KeyObjectives implications through the review using these tools: Civic Tech Visualized Interactive website to explore the landscape of civic tech organizations The analysis was designed to Explore address the following questions: Civic Tech Directory Index of organizations, investors and investment data HOW MUCH MONEY • is being invested Download in civic tech projects? • What are the DIFFERENT CLUSTERS of civic tech innovation? • How does INVESTMENT VARY across these clusters of innovation? • Which organizations are attracting THE MOST INVESTMENT? • WHO IS INVESTING in civic tech? • What is the BALANCE OF PRIVATE AND PHILANTHROPIC investment? 6 Civic Tech: A Convergence of Fields COLLABORATIVE This review incorporates tech CONSUMPTION companies and projects from sev- Tools for procuring eral fields of work. Only projects paid services from local vendors primarily focused on promoting and sharing of GOVERNMENT corporate-owned civic outcomes were included. assets DATA Peer-to-peer sharing of resident-owned Internal goods and performance services and analytics software Public data access and transparency CROWD Funding for FUNDING projects CIVIC that enhance public TECH services and Funding spaces for consumer and commercial Social products causes, civic engagement COMMUNITY Place-based ORGANIZING networks and community Political forums campaign management tools Virtual, professional or practice- based networks SOCIAL NETWORKS 7 Criteria for Inclusion This study focuses on orga- • Organizations nizations, including for-profit Startups, private companies and nonprofits are included. companies and nonprofits, Events, loose affiliations and networks that are not legally that received funding between registered entities are excluded. January 2011 and May 20131 to develop or scale civic • Time Frame technology. Organizations that received funding between January 2011 and May 2013 are included. Organizations that received funding The review used a set of prior to January 1, 2011, are largely excluded. guidelines to determine which • Investment projects should be included. Grants and investments made by foundations, corporations and The resulting analysis provides private investors are included. Government and public funding for a useful initial assessment, civic tech is excluded. In addition, an organization must receive albeit not an exhaustive exam- funding from a third party, rather than just being financed through ination, of the emerging field an organiza-tion’s internal budget. of civic tech. • Technology Organizations funded to support advocacy, research, events and other purposes related to civic tech but not directly tied to building tech-related projects are excluded. • Geography The study concentrates on U.S. investments in U.S.-based civic tech projects. Some international companies that achieved significant investment and/or press also included. 1 The analysis captures organizations that received funding during this period; some have subse- quently closed operations or been acquired. Quid’s investment database captures funding dating back to Jan. 1, 2011. While the review captured a handful of projects that received funding prior to this date, those data are not as comprehensive as data analyzed from this point forward. 8 This section examines: APPROACH How was the civic tech landscape mapped? Mapping CLUSTERS What are different the Field innovation clusters in the field? TRENDS How has the field grown over time? 9 READING THE MAP • Each node (circle) represents Approach to Mapping an organization • Connections between nodes (lines) form between organizations with similar functionality and/or purpose—thicker Civic Technology connections mean greater similarity • Nodes of similar companies cluster The following steps were used to together; nodes of dissimilar companies repel each other and map the civic tech landscape: create spacing in the map 1 Quid and Knight, in consultation with others in the field, seeded the analysis with a set of organizations viewed as core to civic tech innovation. 2 Key terms (e.g., “civic,” “open government,” “open data”) were used to examine media, press and investment data to generate additional organizations to include in the landscape. 3 Quid’s proprietary software generated a network map based on the level of similarity between the way organizations described the functionality and purpose of their technology. 4 Quid and Knight reviewed the resulting map and determined descriptors for different clusters of organizations that emerged from the analysis. Civic Tech Network by Quid Landscape Map 10 READING THE MAP • Circle size represents the number Landscape Themes: of organizations in each cluster • Line thickness represents the number of connections between Open Government & organizations in each cluster • OPEN GOVERNMENT Community Action • COMMUNITY ACTION In reviewing the network map, two top-level themes were identified in relation to the org- anizations included in the analysis. The network map was then color-coded to highlight these two themes. Open Government Projects focused on advancing government transparency, access- ibility of government data and services, and civic involvement in democratic processes Community Action Projects catalyzing peer- to-peer information sharing, civic crowdfunding and collaboration to address civic issues Network by Quid 11 READING THE MAP • Circle size represents the number Innovation Clusters of organizations in the cluster • Line thickness represents the number of connections between organizations in each cluster OPEN GOVERNMENT Within the two overarching themes, • • COMMUNITY ACTION 11 clusters of civic tech innovation were identified: Open Government 1 Data Access & Transparency 1 2 Data Utility 5 9 3 Public Decision Making 4 Resident Feedback 4 2 5 Visualization & Mapping 6 Voting 10 Community Action 11 7 Civic Crowdfunding 7 3 8 Community Organizing 8 9 Information Crowdsourcing 10 Neighborhood Forums 11 Peer-to-Peer Sharing 6 Network by Quid 12 Open Government Innovation Clusters CLUSTER EXAMPLE ORGANIZATIONS DESCRIPTION Data Access & Promote government data availability, Transparency transparency and accountability Data Utility Empower users to analyze government data and leverage data to improve public service delivery Public Decision Encourage resident participation in Making large-scale deliberative democracy and community planning efforts Resident Feedback Provide residents with opportunities to interact with government officials and give feedback about public service delivery Visualization & Enable users to make sense of and gain Mapping actionable insight from civic data sources, specifically through the visualization and mapping of that information Voting Support voter participation and fair election processes 13 Community Action Innovation Clusters CLUSTER EXAMPLE ORGANIZATIONS DESCRIPTION Civic Crowdfunding Suport local projects and organizations that generate a
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