Documenting the History of Civic Tech DC

Since 2012, Civic Tech DC has brought people together to build projects, organize events, and grow a community around civic technology. Yet surprisingly little of that history has been written down.

How did it all begin? What did people try? What worked? What didn’t? And what happened to all the projects along the way?

I can understand why documentation fell to the wayside. When you’re busy organizing events, sitting down to record what happened probably isn’t at the top of the list.

But without that history, hard-won lessons about what worked and what didn’t can get lost. Mistakes get repeated not out of carelessness, but because people may not know those same mistakes have been made before.

Beyond those practical lessons, there’s also something valuable about knowing the story of a community you’re part of. Civic Tech DC didn’t appear out of nowhere. People kept it going through its different chapters and their stories deserve to be shared.

Inspired by the U.S. Digital Service Origins, I’ve started documenting Civic Tech DC’s history. It’s far from complete, and that’s part of the point. I hope to keep piecing together its history through old records and conversations with the people who were there.