New Report Charts the Growth of Civic Tech

What exactly is civic tech, you ask? "It includes for-profit companies like Socrata, which builds platforms for governments to publish their open data, and non-profits like TurboVote, which simplify the voter registration process," writes Emily Badger. "It includes entrepreneurs crowd-funding community projects, making sense out of public data, and helping you tell your government what you want."

"Together, these types of companies and organizations have loosely come to define 'civic tech' – and the potential for a future where technology finally, seamlessly, significantly alters how we relate to government and our neighbors," she explains.

The Knight Foundation has published a new report and launched an interactive website that seek to paint a picture of the field and analyze the current state of investment based around the broad themes of open government and community action.