Civic technology integrates human involvement with digital technologies to encourage civic engagement and improve quality of life.
FREMONT, CA: Civic engagement relies on technology to enable social change. Citizens contribute to their community by volunteering their time to important issues and public planning initiatives. Cities are adopting technologies to share, track, and visualize data for citizens to volunteer and get involved with the community.
Civic technology enables the engagement and public participation of people to improve public infrastructure and enhances communications and opportunities. The following technologies facilitate civic engagement:
Data analytics: Civic technologies deal with citizen concerns and complaints. Organizing information and instructions enable citizens to engage with their surrounding infrastructure. Data analytics streamlines available information to help citizens make informed decisions to help the community. A lack of structured information to undertake solutions in building a better community hinders individual initiative. Members of a community face difficulties in approaching the right department and navigating the bureaucracy to find solutions. Cities are integrating data analytics to create resources for people.
Digital assistants: Virtual digital assistants act as centres for new information. Some cities use digital assistants to deliver important information to users. It keeps community members connected to important information and civic opportunities. Some cities employ applets where subscribers are notified of on-coming natural disasters. It sends emergency alerts to Alexa-integrated devices, car stereos or designated devices. This type of technology can connect citizens to important personalized information.
Blockchain: Blockchain provides essential data to specific demographics. Cities are developing programs for homeless citizens to access the city's services. Officials provide people who are homeless with a unique identifier that is recorded in the blockchain. People on the blockchain can use their identifiers to access important information.
Municipal departments are using blockchain to create smart networks and grids. Authorized officials can access this data to enter information about new and existing services people can access. Citizens can access civic functions, such as secure online voting and volunteer in departments like the fire department.
