Civic Tech Database
Crowdsourced Database – Help Keep it Accurate and Updated!
I will periodically update the table below using the crowdsourced data. (Last revised June 6, 2026)
| Country | Organization | URLs | Key Individuals | Description |
| Taiwan | Watchout / 沃草 | https://watchout.tw/ | Chiu Kuei-chu / 邱貴菊 (representative); Hung Kuo-chun / 洪國鈞 (chief operating officer) | Independent civic media and accountability organization focused on public oversight, elections, and political information. |
| Taiwan | The Reporter / 報導者 | https://www.twreporter.org/ | Ho Jung-hsing / 何榮幸 (founder); Huang Jung-tsun / 黃榮村 (chairperson) | Nonprofit online media organization producing in-depth and investigative reporting on public issues. |
| Taiwan | Taiwan FactCheck Center | https://en.tfc-taiwan.org.tw/ | Shih-Hung Lo / 羅世宏 (chairperson); Chia-Yi Chiu / 邱家宜 (CEO/director) | Nonprofit fact-checking center focused on public-interest misinformation, media literacy, and information quality in Taiwan. |
| Taiwan | READr 讀+ | https://www.readr.tw/ | Media team using data, engineering, design, and reporting to produce interactive journalism and public-interest analysis. | |
| Taiwan | OpenFun Ltd. | https://openfun.tw/ | Ronny Wang (founder); Claire Cheng | Civic-tech studio working on open data, open-source, and open-government tools, including legislative transparency projects. |
| Taiwan | Open Culture Foundation (OCF) | https://ocf.tw/en/ | Pofeng Lee (board member / associated leader) | Nonpartisan nonprofit supporting open source, open data, open government, internet freedom, and civic-tech communities. |
| Taiwan | MyGoPen | https://www.mygopen.com/ | Charles Yeh (founder) | Fact-checking and anti-fraud information service using web and messaging channels to help users verify suspicious claims. |
| Taiwan | LawTrace | https://lawtrace.tw/ | Ronny Wang; Claire Cheng; Sandra (service designer) | Platform for tracing legislation, bills, positions, and parliamentary records for open parliament and civic accountability. |
| Taiwan | IORG / 台灣資訊環境研究中心 | https://iorg.tw/ | Civil society research organization using data evidence and public communication to study Taiwan’s information environment. | |
| Taiwan | g0v Congressthon / 國會松 | https://g0vcongressthon.oen.tw/ | Ronny Wang (initiator / organizer) | g0v-linked open-parliament hackathon/project stream for legislative transparency and civic participation tools. |
| Taiwan | g0v / 台灣零時政府 | https://g0v.tw/ | Chia-liang Kao / 高嘉良; Audrey Tang / 唐鳳 | Grassroots civic-hacking community building open-source, open-license tools for transparency, participation, and public problem-solving. |
| Taiwan | Doublethink Lab | https://doublethinklab.org/ | Puma Shen / 沈伯洋 (founder / former chairperson); Poyu Tseng / 曾柏瑜 (former deputy CEO) | Taiwan-based nonprofit researching influence operations, information manipulation, and democratic digital defense. |
| Taiwan | Cofacts / 真的假的 | https://en.cofacts.tw/ | Billion Lee (co-founder) | Open-source, crowdsourced fact-checking database and chatbot for responding to suspicious messages, especially on LINE. |
| Taiwan | Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) / 公民監督國會聯盟 | https://ccw.org.tw/english/about | Tung-ru Jeffery Shieh / 謝東儒 (chairperson); James Kan (deputy executive director) | Civil society coalition monitoring Taiwan’s legislature and publishing public accountability and scorecard information. |
| South Korea | WAGL / 와글 (We All Govern Lab) | https://wa-gl.imweb.me/ | Kwon Ji-woong / 권지웅 (representative); Lee Jin-soon / 이진순 (associated historical WAGL political-startup leader) | South Korean civic-tech organization that created Filibuster.me / 필리버스터닷미, an online citizen-speech platform during the 2016 National Assembly filibuster, and later worked on digital tools for participation and democratic organizing. |
| South Korea | Team POPONG | https://github.com/teampopong | Civic data group that built political and parliamentary data tools, often through open-source repositories and collaborations. | |
| South Korea | Parti Co-op / 빠띠 | https://parti.coop/ | Ohyeon Kweon / 권오현 (founder / representative) | Civic-tech cooperative building online participation, deliberation, campaign, and community decision-making infrastructure. |
| South Korea | Open Net Korea | https://www.opennetkorea.org/ | Kyung Sin Park / 박경신 (director / board member) | Civil society organization working on internet freedom, open data, surveillance, platform governance, and access to public information. |
| South Korea | NullFull / 널채움 | https://nullfull.kr/ | Volunteer civic-tech community of developers, designers, activists, data analysts, and technologists working on public-interest projects. | |
| South Korea | National Assembly Now / 국회는 지금 | https://github.com/teampopong/labs.popong.com-codenamu | Codenamu and Team POPONG-linked project opening and structuring National Assembly information for public use. | |
| South Korea | KCIJ-Newstapa / 뉴스타파 | https://www.newstapa.org/eng_about | Yongjin Kim / 김용진 (founding representative / former CEO and editor-in-chief) | Nonprofit investigative newsroom producing accountability journalism, data journalism, and journalism training projects. |
| South Korea | Jinbonet / Digital Justice Network | https://act.jinbo.net/wp/p5804/ | Oh Byoung-il / 오병일 (associated digital-rights activist) | Digital-rights organization and network-service provider supporting civil society communication, privacy, and information rights. |
| South Korea | Complyon Consulting | https://complyonconsulting.com/ | Shinhye Choi | Civic-tech-adjacent consulting organization focused on compliance, data governance, AI governance, and organizational accountability. |
| South Korea | Codenamu / 코드나무 | https://github.com/codenamu | Open-government civic-hacking community linked to early Korean civic-tech and public-data projects. | |
| South Korea | Code for Seoul | https://github.com/codeforseoul | Local civic-tech group associated with Code for All-style civic hacking and public-service applications. | |
| South Korea | Code for Korea | https://www.codefor.kr/ | Eunsoo Lee; Ohyeon Kweon / 권오현 (associated contributors) | Civic-tech community focused on civic hacking, public-interest data, and local public problem-solving in South Korea. |
| South Korea | Code for Incheon | https://codeforincheon.github.io/homepage/index_EN.html | Hwa Jimin; Lim Byeongguk; Yoo Hogyun | Local civic-tech/civic-hacking group; official URL not identified confidently during this compilation. |
| South Korea | C.O.D.E. / 사단법인 코드 | https://codekorea.cc/ | Yoon Jong-soo / 윤종수 (chairperson); Kwon Hye-jin / 권혜진 (director); Oh Won-seok / 오원석 (director) | Nonprofit using open data, digital technology, and commons-oriented methods for social innovation and open society projects. |
| Kyrgyzstan | Transparency International Kyrgyzstan | https://en.transparency.kg/ | Anti-corruption civil society actor connected to digital technology for civic empowerment and accountability work in Kyrgyzstan. | |
| Kyrgyzstan | Temirov Live | https://www.youtube.com/@TemirovLIVE | Bolot Temirov | YouTube-based investigative media outlet reporting on corruption and abuse of power in Kyrgyzstan. |
| Kyrgyzstan | PolitKlinika | https://pk.kg/ | Independent media outlet publishing investigations, fact-checking, data, and public-interest reporting. | |
| Kyrgyzstan | Media Development Center / Factcheck.kg | https://factcheck.kg/ | Asel Sooronbaeva (former Factcheck.kg editor) | Fact-checking and media-development project focused on verified information and media literacy in Kyrgyzstan. |
| Kyrgyzstan | Kloop | https://kloop.kg/ | Bektour Iskender (co-founder); Rinat Tuhvatshin (co-founder); Anna Kapushenko (editor) | Independent media organization known for investigative reporting, data journalism, and civic accountability projects. |
| Kazakhstan | Zertteu Research Institute | https://zertteu.org/ | Sholpan Aitenova (head / CEO) | Independent research institute monitoring government spending, budget transparency, and public finance accountability. |
| Kazakhstan | ProZakup / Kun Jarygy Coalition | https://www.prozakup.kz/ | Aida Bapakhova; N.U. Rahmanov; A.I. Myrkhin; R.SH. Asaubayev | Public procurement monitoring community and digital platform supporting civic oversight of Kazakhstan’s procurement processes. |
| Kazakhstan | MediaNet International Center for Journalism | https://medianet.ngo/en/ | Moldir Utegenova (project manager); Alyona Koshkina (media-literacy program manager) | Journalism and media-literacy organization associated with fact-checking and anti-disinformation projects in Kazakhstan. |
| Kazakhstan | Legal Media Center | https://www.facebook.com/lmc.kz/ | Diana Okremova (director / media-rights lawyer) | Media-rights organization supporting journalists, media freedom, legal capacity, and civil society media advocacy. |
| Kazakhstan | Factcheck.kz | https://factcheck.kz/en/ | Adil Jalilov (founder / editor) | Fact-checking project associated with MediaNet and focused on misinformation, public claims, and media-literacy work in Kazakhstan. |
| Kazakhstan | Datanomix.pro | https://datanomix.pro/ | Data and AI toolset for auditing public procurement risks, red flags, transparency, and compliance. | |
| Japan | Safecast | https://safecast.org/ | Sean Bonner (co-founder); Joi Ito (co-founder); Pieter Franken (co-founder) | Citizen-science and open-data project collecting, publishing, and visualizing environmental radiation and other sensor data. |
| Japan | Open Knowledge Japan | https://okfn.org/en/japan/ | Tomoaki Watanabe (associated leader) | Open Knowledge network chapter promoting open data, open knowledge, and public reuse of information in Japan. |
| Japan | FactCheck Initiative Japan (FIJ) | https://fij.info/ | Fact-checking initiative supporting verification, media literacy, and information-quality work in Japan. | |
| Japan | Code for Kanazawa | https://codeforkanazawa.org/ | Local civic-tech organization known for municipal open-data and service projects such as garbage-collection information tools. | |
| Japan | Code for Japan | https://www.code4japan.org/ | Hal Seki / 関治之 (founder) | National civic-tech network supporting projects, local brigades, public-interest technology, and civic problem-solving in Japan. |
| Japan | Civic Tech Japan | https://www.civictech.jp/ | Civic-tech alliance and training organization focused on open data, smart-city preparation, and regional problem-solving collaboration. |
What is Civic Tech?
Civic tech is the use of software, data, design, and networked communication to help citizens, journalists, NGOs, communities, and public institutions solve public problems. It overlaps with open data, public-interest technology, data journalism, digital rights, fact-checking, participatory democracy, and anti-corruption work. The core idea is not simply that technology improves government. It is that technology can expand civic capacity: the public’s ability to see, understand, monitor, deliberate, organize, and act.
Civic tech is therefore different from ordinary government technology. Govtech usually improves internal state capacity: procurement systems, digital identity, tax portals, service delivery, case management, or administrative automation. Civic tech focuses on the public side of accountability and participation: making budgets legible, tracing legislation, checking claims, mapping hazards, organizing volunteers, monitoring procurement, visualizing public records, and building channels through which citizens can contest or improve public decisions.
The boundary is porous. A government open-data portal may be govtech when built by a ministry, but civic tech when journalists, NGOs, or hackers reuse that data to expose corruption, explain policy, or build public tools. Likewise, a civic-tech project may eventually become institutionalized inside a city government, media organization, or social enterprise. The most interesting projects often sit between sectors.
Typology of Civic Tech Organizations
A practical typology distinguishes civic-tech organizations by their main public function rather than by legal form. The same organization may occupy more than one category, especially when investigative journalism, open data, and civic hacking overlap.
| Type | Primary civic function | Typical methods | Common outputs |
| Civic-hacking communities | Mobilize volunteers and technologists around public problems. | Hackathons, open-source repositories, prototyping, scraping, data cleaning, APIs. | Public dashboards, maps, bots, open-source tools, prototype services. |
| Open-data and digital-rights NGOs | Improve access to public information and defend digital freedoms. | FOI requests, litigation, policy advocacy, standards work, public datasets. | Open-data campaigns, court/judgment databases, policy briefs, legal challenges. |
| Investigative and data journalism groups | Transform data and documents into public accountability reporting. | Data scraping, document analysis, statistical analysis, visualization, OSINT. | Investigations, databases, interactive stories, explainers, training programs. |
| Fact-checking and information-integrity groups | Reduce the civic harm of misinformation and manipulation. | Claim review, crowdsourcing, chatbot workflows, source verification, network analysis. | Fact-checks, rumor databases, media-literacy tools, disinformation reports. |
| Legislative and budget monitors | Make politicians, budgets, procurement, and lawmaking legible to the public. | Parliamentary-data parsing, budget visualization, procurement red flags, scorecards. | Legislator scorecards, budget trackers, procurement-monitoring platforms. |
| Civic-tech consultancies and social enterprises | Build durable tools, platforms, and compliance systems for public-interest partners. | Product development, data governance, AI governance, UX, platform operations. | Civic platforms, open-government tools, governance dashboards, institutional systems. |
Asia’s Civic Tech Ecosystems
East Asian civic tech is relatively dense, but it is not uniform. Taiwan is the clearest case of an integrated civic-tech ecosystem. Its civic hackers, open-source NGOs, legislative monitors, fact-checkers, investigative journalists, and information-operations researchers often know one another, share vocabularies, and reuse tools. g0v provides a recognizable community identity, while OCF, Cofacts, LawTrace, READr, The Reporter, Doublethink Lab, IORG, and Citizen Congress Watch illustrate how civic hacking, journalism, open parliament, and information integrity can reinforce one another.
South Korea has strong public digital infrastructure and a sophisticated data environment, but its civic-tech ecosystem is more segmented. Code for Seoul, Code for Korea, Codenamu, NullFull, Parti, C.O.D.E., Open Net Korea, Team POPONG, and Newstapa represent important strands: volunteer civic hacking, digital-rights advocacy, civic participation platforms, open-government data, and nonprofit investigative journalism. Compared with Taiwan, the Korean ecosystem appears less centered on one shared civic-hacker brand and more distributed across professional journalism, legal advocacy, social enterprise, and project-based communities.
Japan’s ecosystem is more municipal, service-oriented, and institutionally collaborative. Code for Japan and local Code for chapters emphasize local problem solving, open data, disaster response, municipal collaboration, and civic participation. Safecast is a major outlier and model: it demonstrates how citizen science and open hardware/data can become a global public-interest infrastructure. Japan’s civic-tech pattern is often less adversarial than investigative-news ecosystems and more focused on practical services, local government collaboration, and civic capacity building.
The Philippines has a different profile. Civic tech there is strongly tied to social accountability, open-government commitments, participatory governance, digital rights, journalism, and anti-disinformation work. Its ecosystem is less easily summarized through a single civic-hacker organization than Taiwan’s g0v or Japan’s Code for Japan model. Instead, the Philippine pattern often links civil society, media, open-data initiatives, and local accountability tools. The central challenge is not only building tools but also sustaining civic trust and safety in a polarized information environment.
Central Asia shows a more constrained but highly consequential civic-tech field. In Kazakhstan, civic-tech-adjacent work clusters around procurement monitoring, budget transparency, fact-checking, media literacy, and legal support for media. Organizations and projects such as Zertteu, ProZakup/Kun Jarygy, Factcheck.kz, MediaNet, Legal Media Center, and Datanomix.pro show a practical orientation toward public finance, anti-corruption, and misinformation. In Kyrgyzstan, the field is more visibly connected to investigative journalism, anti-corruption reporting, fact-checking, and media freedom, with Kloop, Temirov Live, PolitKlinika, Factcheck.kg, and related civil society actors operating in a much higher-pressure political environment.
The regional comparison suggests three axes of variation. First, civic tech varies by institutional density: Taiwan has a thick network, Japan has a national-local civic-tech architecture, Korea has important but more dispersed clusters, and Central Asian cases rely more heavily on NGOs and media organizations. Second, it varies by political function: Taiwan and Korea emphasize open government and information integrity; Japan emphasizes local service and disaster/public data; Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan emphasize accountability under constraint. Third, it varies by organizational form: volunteer hackers matter, but so do nonprofit newsrooms, legal NGOs, fact-checkers, public-finance monitors, and civic-tech consultancies.