ep43 - The State of Civic Tech

Stories from the Open Gov

Civic Tech Toronto is a diverse community of Torontonians interested in better understanding and finding solutions to civic challenges through technology, design or other means. And today I am joined by three of their organizers: - Skaidra Puodziunas, who is a public servant with the Ontario Government. - Curtis McCord, who is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information - John Spragge who is a software engineer for Manifold Eye Software. In this episode we discuss the state of Civic Technology – particularly as it applies in Toronto. We explore topics like the funding and sustainability of projects, the integration of projects with governments, how civic tech will have to adapt to COVID19, and one of my personal favourites, how can we make Civic Tech sexy and bring more attention to the community? Time stamps: 1:27 – What is Civic Tech and Civic Tech Toronto? 7:28 – How can we bring more attention to the Civic Tech movement? 19:11 – How can we make Civic Tech sexy? 27:06 – How can we sustain Civic Tech projects? 34:20 – What role should government procurement play in the Civic Tech community? 45:55 – Do public service job descriptions need to change? 52:38 – Thoughts on the role that organizations like Code for Canada play in the Civic Tech community 55:31 – How important is it for projects to be integrated in government initiatives in order to keep 9-to-5ers interested? 1:01:16 – How has COVID19 changed Civic Tech Toronto? Civic Tech Toronto Twitter account twitter.com/CivicTechTo Skaidra Puodziunas twitter.com/skaidrap Curtis McCord twitter.com/cwm_ John Spragge twitter.com/johnspragge Richard Pietro Twitter account twitter.com/richardpietro Re: Open Gov Twitter account twitter.com/re_open_gov ABOUT Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like. Your host is Richard Pietro, an Open Government & Open Data practitioner for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality! MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/