Civic TechnologyField guide
Designing Public Services People Can Actually Use
Accessibility is more than a compliant screen. A practical guide to forms, recovery, assisted channels, and measuring whether people reach the outcome.
Urban InnovationThe big question
The pilot worked.
What happens
next?
A good demonstration is only the beginning. What it takes to turn a city experiment into a service that lasts.
Read the field guide
Technology is a starting point.
A better city is the point.
Worth your attention
Explore the journal A few good starting points.
SustainabilityField guide
Making Municipal Building Energy Data Useful
How to turn utility records into a defensible baseline, fairer comparisons, and a practical investigation list for a public-building portfolio.
Digital InfrastructureField guide
Cybersecurity Foundations for Small City Teams
Start with the services people depend on. A practical way to organize ownership, access, recovery, and supplier responsibilities.
Five ways inDifferent systems.
Different systems.
Shared futures.
Follow the connections between public life, practical technology, and the places we call home.
01
Civic Technology
Public services designed around the people who use them.
02Urban Innovation
From a promising pilot to something a city can depend on.
03Sustainability
Better decisions about energy, water, and shared resources.
04Digital Infrastructure
The standards, security, and connections underneath the service.
05Innovation Stories
A closer look at what real projects can teach us.
Less noise. More understanding.
Guides to keep, not headlines to chase.Go a little deeper.
Digital InfrastructureExplainer
Open311 Explained: From Resident Report to Service Request
What the GeoReport v2 standard connects, what it leaves to a city, and why an open interface is only one part of a functioning reporting service.
Urban InnovationField guide
Before Installing Urban Sensors, Ask These Questions
A field guide to useful measurements, maintenance, data quality, and the work that begins after an urban sensor is switched on.
SustainabilityAnalysis
Finding Water Loss with Better Data
Why a water balance comes before a sensor purchase, and how utilities can distinguish physical leaks from metering and accounting problems.
Innovation StoriesCase study
What Barcelona’s Decidim Shows About Digital Participation
An open-source platform can make a public process easier to follow. Barcelona’s participatory budgeting also shows why institutions still have to do the work.
The Philadelphia connectionA city-sized idea.
A city-sized idea.
An enduring question.
In 2013, Philadelphia brought entrepreneurs and city government together through FastFWD. We revisit the program, its ambitions, and the lessons that still matter.
Read the FastFWD story An independent retrospective of the original accelerator.What would make this
work better for people?