Re: Civic Technology

Hi all,

I’m glad to see people weighing in on how to revitalize the group. 

I believe Adam has invited someone to present themselves as co-Chair. I suggest that the Chair(s)
draft a plan that describes what the group wants to accomplish and how it can achieve those goals, then
organizes a meeting of the participants to discuss the draft plan.

I don’t plan to participate in that discussion (which should be driven by the participants and led by the Chairs)
but I am available to answer any questions. 

I propose to check back in on progress in about a month. Does that make sense?

Ian

> On Apr 2, 2026, at 7:22 PM, Daveed <daveed@bridgit.io> wrote:
> 
> Hi Adam, Felipe, Ian, and all,
> Really appreciate where this conversation is going. The focus on defining civic technology, mapping the ecosystem, and connecting it to emerging standards feels like the right foundation.
> I want to offer a slightly different angle that might help tie some of this together.
> A lot of the challenges being named here are not just about missing tools or standards. They are about how people coordinate, interpret, and trust information together. Right now, most of that happens around content, in feeds, forums, or separate platforms, not directly on the content itself.
> There is a design space opening up around enabling interaction directly in context. Things like:
>     • annotations and discussion tied to specific claims
>     • visible trust signals such as provenance, identity, or verification
>     • shared presence and coordination across otherwise separate pages
> In other words, a layer where civic interaction and validation can happen on top of the existing web, instead of being fragmented across platforms.
> This does not compete with standards work. It likely depends on it. Things like DIDs, verifiable credentials, and linked data become much more meaningful if they show up in context, at the moment someone is trying to understand or act on something.
> One way I have been thinking about this is in terms of roles. Not just developers or policy designers, but people who help build shared meaning and trust across spaces. You could call that a kind of civic mason role, someone helping connect signals, surface context, and support coordination where it is actually needed.
> Maybe some useful questions for the group:
>     • What would trust signals look like if they were visible and composable across contexts?
>     • How can emerging W3C technologies support coordination at the interaction level, not just data interoperability?
>     • What practices or interfaces help people collectively interpret and validate information in real time?
> This might also complement the idea of building a database of civic technologies, by looking not only at what tools exist but how they support shared sensemaking and coordination.
> Happy to explore further if this direction is useful. If not, all good...
> 
> Best,
> Daveed
> 
> 
> Daveed Benjamin
> Founder
> Bridgit.io
> daveed@bridgit.io 
> daveed@nos.social
> +1 (510) 326-2803 (Whatsapp) 
> +1 (510) 373-3244 (Voicemail)
> Book meeting 
> 
> The Metaweb - The Next Level of the Internet was published by Taylor & Francis in late November, 2023. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
> To: "Felipe Ribeiro"<operarioribeiro@gmail.com>, "Ian Jacobs"<ij@w3.org>
> Cc: "Team Community Process"<team-community-process@w3.org>, "public-civics@w3.org"<public-civics@w3.org>
> Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:26:05 -0700
> Subject: Re: Civic Technology
> 
> Ian,
> Felipe,
> All,
> 
> In addition to those ideas proposed by Felipe for the Community Group, discussing what civic technology is, the nature of its ecosystems, and their urgent needs, I would like to propose an activity of discussing the applicability of emerging W3C technologies to these ecosystems and their needs: https://www.w3.org/news/ . As one can see, recent developments, there, include: DIDs, Geolocation, and Linked Web Storage. The idea is that we could brainstorm in response to applicable new technologies, as they are reported on, at that link, and subsequently discuss how these emerging technologies could benefit the ecosystems of interest to our Community Group and their needs.
> 
> With respect to a database of civic technologies, there is: https://civictech.guide/about/ .
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Adam
> 
> P.S.: I support any Group participants seeking to nominate themselves to the position of Chair or Co-chair and to hear any more new ideas for this Community Group.
> 
> From: Felipe Ribeiro <operarioribeiro@gmail.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 2, 2026 7:05 PM
> To: Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
> Cc: Team Community Process <team-community-process@w3.org>; public-civics@w3.org <public-civics@w3.org>
> Subject: Re: Civic Technology
> 
> Ian, thank you for noticing my mistyping. Long days here.
> 
> On Thu, Apr 2, 2026 at 8:04 PM Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org> wrote:
> Hi Felipe,
> 
> > On Apr 2, 2026, at 5:59 PM, Felipe Ribeiro <operarioribeiro@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > To begin with I believe it is important for us to understand that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Working Groups purpose is mainly to develop 'Open Standards Documents Drafting' in compliance with its 'Process Document'.
> 
> This is a Community Group, not at Working Group. Participation and development of specifications are governed by documents listed here:
>   https://www.w3.org/community/about/
> 
> >
> > With that in mind it would be an important first step for us to achieve a consensual definition of civic technology and its ecosystem's current most urgent needs in compliance with W3C's semantic web linked open vocabularies (LOVs) methodology.
> >
> > Because of that, I think we should gather a database of civic technologies out there to analyze them further with the due e-democracy open governance public participation:
> >     • United Nations Open Governance Tool Consul Democracy: https://consuldemocracy.org
> >     • Open Web 2.0 (OW2) - Open by Rule Governance Charter: https://ow2.org/view/About/Open_By_Rule
> >     • Open Source Program Office (OSPO) Alliance - Open Governance Guide: https://ospo-alliance.org/ggi
> >     • Democracia OS: https://democraciaos.org/en
> >     • Community Rule - Open Governance Templates: https://communityrule.info/templates
> >     • Community Rule - Open Governance Policy Creator: https://communityrule.info/create
> >     • Democracy Foundation - List of e-Voting, Deliberation, and e-Democracy Projects: https://democracy.foundation/similar-projects
> > With a definition of civic technology, a list of its ecosystem's issues, and its controlled vocabulary, we can think together on the best solutions possible and how to develop them through public international law (PIL) rule of law (RoL) regulatory compliance standardization under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
> 
> The group was created in April of 2023. Has the group had success organizing discussions around these topics?
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 2, 2026 at 6:22 PM Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I’m happy to hear statements of support. It would be helpful to understand if you agree that the group has become
> > inactive, and if so:
> >
> > * Are there any obstacles to being more active, or it is simply that people are not engaging?
> > * Are there plans to change the situation? Are the Chairs in a position to lead the participants in a planning activity or driving engagement?
> >
> > In other words: what are participants in a position to do to help the group succeed?
> >
> > Ian
> >
> > > On Apr 2, 2026, at 2:09 PM, Felipe Ribeiro <operarioribeiro@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I think it is important for this group to proceed.
> > > For that purpose I share the following best open source technologies on the field for us to start thinking on our direction.
> > >
> > > United Nations Open Governance Tool Consul Democracy: https://consuldemocracy.org
> > >
> > > Open Web 2.0 (OW2) - Open by Rule Governance Charter: https://ow2.org/view/About/Open_By_Rule
> > >
> > > Open Source Program Office (OSPO) Alliance - Open Governance Guide: https://ospo-alliance.org/ggi
> > >
> > > Democracia OS: https://democraciaos.org/en
> > >
> > > Community Rule - Open Governance Templates: https://communityrule.info/templates
> > >
> > > Community Rule - Open Governance Policy Creator: https://communityrule.info/create
> > >
> > > Democracy Foundation - List of e-Voting, Deliberation, and e-Democracy Projects: https://democracy.foundation/similar-projects
> > >
> > > Felipe Ribeiro
> > > linkedin.com/in/operarioribeiro
> >
> > --
> > Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
> > https://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
> > Tel: +1 917 450 8783
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> --
> Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
> https://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
> Tel: +1 917 450 8783
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

--
Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
https://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel: +1 917 450 8783

Received on Friday, 3 April 2026 00:28:37 UTC