Some modern applications of that Athenian democracy:
'8 Ways To Open Up Civic Data So That People Actually Use It' at
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682405/8-ways-to-open-up-civic-data-so-that-people-actually-use-it 1. Open Gov for the Rest of Us, a project that gives residents of low-income Chicago neighborhoods the tools to ask for better data about foreclosure, immigration, crime, and schools. This isn’t just an app--it’s an entire engagement campaign for low-income parts of the city.
2. OpenCounter, a team that makes it easier for residents to navigate the tricky world of business permitting, which too often turns off burgeoning entrepreneurs.
3. Civic Insight: Providing up-to-date information on vacant properties so that communities can find ways to make tangible improvements to local spaces.
4. Outline.com: Launching a public policy simulator that helps people visualize the impact that public policies like health care reform and school budget changes might have on local economies and communities.
5. Oyez: Making state and appellate court documents freely available and useful to journalists, scholars and the public, by providing straightforward summaries of decisions, free audio recordings and more.
6. Procur.io: Making government contract bidding more transparent by simplifying the way smaller companies bid on government work.
7. GitMachines: Supporting government innovation by creating tools and servers that meet government regulations, so that developers can easily build and adopt new technology.
8. Plan in a Box: Making it easier to discover information about local planning projects, by creating a tool that governments and contractors can use to easily create websites with updates that also allow public input into the process.
