From France's Digital Republic Act making it the first country in the world to make public data ‘open by default', to the UKGovernment's Open Government License putting data transparency ‘at the heart of government', governments across the world have been striving for more open processes. As a community engagement platform used by governments to connect with residents and engage them in decision-making, we know the vital role this openness plays in building trust. We also recognise that open access tools are the future, so we're excited to be going open source to practice what we preach - transparent and equitable democracy.  

As one of the leading Civic Tech companies in Europe, the CitizenLab team feels we have a responsibility to uphold best practices for open democracy, and we strongly believe that open source is that way forward. Since launching in 2015, we have worked with over 275 local governments and organisations in more than 18 countries, and we've learned a thing or two about the way that open source can benefit community engagement initiatives.