Civic technology (civic tech) is an emergent area of practice where citizens, both information technology (IT) experts and those without specialized IT skills, volunteer their time to benefit their communities and improve government services by using government-provided open data.
Civic tech. dating from only 2008*, draws from e-government innovation and civic engagement. It is also a new form of citizen–government relationship, building on the trend of greater government transparency and “do it yourself” citizen work. Civic tech serves a complementary role, existing outside traditional government structures such as citizen advisory committees and public hearings.
As of December 2017, North Carolina has six groups working in some of the larger cities to build civic tech apps for public benefit. Many local government officials are helping in this area, and there is opportunity to reach more communities. Approximately 40 city and county governments have open data portals to support civic tech.
