Tech for Engagement
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News & Updates
Get Updates On Tech for EngagementNews Releases
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Philadelphians gain greater access to digital literacy classes, affordable high-speed Internet and low-cost computers
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Knight commits $9 million to civic technology and engagement
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Girls Who Code expands tech education program to three cities with Knight Foundation funding
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Knight Foundation invests $1.3 million in technology that empowers communities
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Citizens redefining philanthropy in Philadelphia
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Favortree uses mobile phones to ‘Play it Forward’
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Detroit initiatives advance contemporary public life
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City of Macon Welcomes Code for America Fellows
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Knight Foundation brings Code for America to Detroit, Macon and Philadelphia
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Knight Foundation, TakingITGlobal, and the Global Youth Action Network launch new initiative to strengthen Youth Movements
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New tech initiative to help engage and empower San Jose and Silicon Valley community
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Texting to turn-on teens to doing good
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Mobilize.org to Expand to New Cities with $1 million from Knight Foundation
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Knight Foundation and Mozilla Partner to Spur Media Innovation
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Sunlight Foundation to Launch "National Data Apps" with grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
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Game-based Civics and News Literacy Curriculum Expanded with Knight Foundation Support
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New Knight Foundation Initiative Aims to Inspire Community Action through Technology
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Voters to Directly Ask Candidates Questions in Upcoming November Elections Interactive Website Gives Voice to Residents in 11 States
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Shorty Award Winners Unveiled In New York City
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Media Advisory: FCC & Knight Foundation Host Digital Inclusion Summit at Newseum on March 9
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Shorty Awards Announce Twitter Finalists and Category Sponsors
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Top Twitter Users to be Honored by Shorty Awards and Knight Foundation
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Internews to Deploy Media Assistance in Support of Haiti’s Information Needs
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Crowd-Funded Journalism Comes to Los Angeles
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San Jose Harnesses Web 2.0 Technology to Help Determine City's Future and Growth
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Top Twitter Users to be Recognized by Shorty Awards and Knight Foundation
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Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen Addresses Economic Outlook
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Inventor of Web Announces Creation of Foundation to Bring the Web to All People
Knight Blog
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Benevolent: Building social capital toward community progress
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Bright spots in community engagement: Philadelphia - 'Civic Fusion' at work
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Engage Philadelphia: What happens when tech entrepreneurs and city leaders collaborate
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GovLab @ NYU “Experiment” goes from awkward to exceptional
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No taxation without participation: Making governments more open and accountable
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GovLab's 'Experiment' brainstorms ways to make engagement work
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Knight welcomes Carol Coletta as new vice president
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Informed and engaged communities through placemaking: building off Soul of the Community
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Knight Foundation goes live with new portal for grantees
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Messing with Texas: empowering citizens to push for open government
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Code for America comes to Akron
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Ideas into action: Knight helps TED develop engagement platform
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Knight doubles down on tech’s potential to connect communities for action
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A Tech for Engagement road show: Knight goes to TED
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Empowering young women in tech
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Advice to next generation journos: be fair, just & honorable
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Civic incubator looks to speed rate of innovation
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Why journalists need to get behind the #opendata movement
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Seven ways to civic engagement: Insights from Detroit and beyond
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Building Philly’s open data movement
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Apps for engagement and innovation
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The power of tech to build a 21st century government
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Change by Us: breaking down boundaries between residents and decision-makers
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Taking small steps for large-scale community change
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Opening up City Hall with OpenGovernment.org
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Using tech to transform democracy
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Knight Foundation’s National Program strategy
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#DetroitShowcase: Innovators show off tech for engagement projects
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The five best - and worst - moments from 1,000 Random Acts of Culture™
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Growing citizen philanthropy in Philadelphia and Detroit
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.@recovers_org launches http://t.co/cFwUDkP3tE to help coordinate #OKC #Moore tornado relief. Share needs, volunteer or send supplies.
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National #artplace grants to receive new support include #Miami's own @ArshtCenter and @OCINEMA http://t.co/B3tMB7HGru v @MiamiHerald
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MT @EricNewton1: Civic engagement increases with news and information projects, funders find http://t.co/bYdo7He9We
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MT @skitdaddle: Big things to come at @McCollCenterNC with support from @ArtPlaceAmerica and the @knightfdn | http://t.co/KPjOx7xhuZ
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MT @jpalfrey: Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibargüen Receives Annual PBS ‘Be More’ Award: @pbs: http://t.co/U7pGLQ7158 @ibarguen
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Meet some of new @ArtPlaceAmerica #placemaking projects: @OCINEMA @ArshtCenter @LiveArtsFringe @MACLAarte @MercerYou http://t.co/9dVVW66jlP
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"IRS foot-dragging on tax-exempt status is stifling nonprofit investigative #journalism" http://t.co/B9ch4wrYun v @washingtonpost
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.@ArtPlaceAmerica announces $15.2M in funding for new projects in 44 #communities http://t.co/9dVVW66jlP #artplace #placemaking
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Using stories & data to advance community change http://t.co/rfCrGLU6ue v @TDFcommunity @floodlightstory #opendata #dataviz
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How jschools are helping students develop entrepreneurial #journalism skills http://t.co/HLepj5LsAK v @poynter #education
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Paving the way for 'ecoventions' at the @SchuylkillCtr http://t.co/Lb6xO4dQO2 by @newsworkswhyy v @KnightArts #Philly
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Come work with us at Knight. We're currently hiring for a #systemsanalyst & an assistant http://t.co/rJkUBaUHNK #employment #hr
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Don't miss an opportunity for #funding in #opengov, information tools in Knight Community Info Challenge http://t.co/OoXlMcWmZ8 #infoneeds
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Turn civic health data to useful apps/visualizations: have impact on public decision-making http://t.co/t0geH1yYEQ @CivicData deadline 5/19
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.@knightarts finalists show depth of #Miami’s #cultural community, diversity of leaders & outside-the-box ideas http://t.co/QhoY4fxUNz
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50 black male leaders honored tmrw in #Detroit #Philly #Baltimore. Follow along with @bmecommunity #bmecommunity http://t.co/7CE8mGlkFu
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#FF to some of our grantees building more informed/engaged #SanJose & #SV: @ZERO1_ART @SomosMayfair @siliconvalleycf http://t.co/7soMxnDzbF
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Tomorrow morning 10:30 am @bmedetroit @bmebaltimore @bmedetroit honor #leadership winners. Follow #bmecommunity! http://t.co/7CE8mGlkFu
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Civic engagement increases with news & information projects, funders find http://t.co/bYdo7He9We #philanthropy #infoneeds
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#techjobs MT @bthewirz: Great opportunity, amazing team + disruptive tech @captricity is hiring! https://t.co/yScKB59riI cc @knightfdn
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Believing in power of tech & collaboration as impetus for community building http://t.co/ncY9tEKBH8 by @SFlaBizJournal v @matthaggman
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Digital Public Library raises questions of ownership, permanence, access http://t.co/CIslAm8YFy v @p2173 @dpla #libraries
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Where art & tech meet big government data: #HackForChange #Miami http://t.co/1dliYczYwV v @ndahlberg @thelabmiami
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Funding opportunity for community #foundations: Knight Community Information Challenge deadline 6/1 http://t.co/kOrE3ZhGbr #philanthropy
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RT @jcanales: Congrats, Alberto! RT @TimOlsonSF: PBS honors @ibarguen with Be More award #pbsam @knightfdn http://t.co/abUmkMjjf8
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Finding opportunities & addressing needs in #SanJose http://t.co/7soMxnDzbF v @knightsilicnvly #SV #philanthropy
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“BMe is based on a simple truth: there are thousands of black men who are assets to their #communities” - @TSatKF http://t.co/uCketrD2iA
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We're hiring a systems #analyst. Find out more details & apply: http://t.co/P8cv6Y5bY5 #hr #jobs
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Making it so that everywhere you go in S. Florida, you have an encounter with #arts http://t.co/QhoY4fxUNz The @knightarts finalists.
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How civic #entrepreneurship is re-energizing #Detroit - lessons from the field http://t.co/WiAyr9Ul8V v @leagueofcities #socent #socinn
Publications
In The News
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Benevolent is like Kiva for the Silicon Valley's working poor
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It’s not charity– it’s community, says the founder of Benevolent
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‘Crowdfunding’ site uses donations to lend a helping hand
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Benevolent’s approach to crowdfunding lifts low-income Americans out of poverty
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Can Silicon Valley beat poverty with crowdfunding?
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Knight Foundation and Fisher family fund nonprofit startup, Benevolent
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Techy girls gaining ground
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Group tells teen girls computer programming isn't just for guys
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Innovative program promotes new technology in the classroom
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West Charlotte students receive 2,000 laptops from Project LIFT
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West Charlotte students get 2,000 free laptops
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Knight Foundation gives $9 million to support civic technology
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Knight Foundation gives $9M to TED, Code for America, and NYU to foster technology in democracy
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Foundation pushes technology’s ability to transform government
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Notebooks, training go to Project LIFT
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Teaching girls to code
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‘Girls Who Code’ expanding to Detroit, other cities with Knight Foundation funding
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Girls Who Code expands across the US with summer programs in Detroit, San Jose and Miami
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Targeting gender gap in tech, Girls Who Code expanding to Miami
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Tech for Engagement: mapping the field
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Transforming democracy through digital technology
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Millennials: The new American dreamers
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Change By Us, OpenGovernment.org: Knight Foundation invests $800k in local civic engagement tools
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Code for America unveils Macon apps
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Civic engagement projects to expand, thanks to Knight grants
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New Grant to Open Legislatures, Make Cities More Interactive
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Code for Oakland: The people's hackathon builds a civic web Saturday
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FavorTree - New app uses gamification for social good
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Sugar Packet grabs $350K for Favortree: A community app for sharing goods and services
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Need a favor? New app lets you give and get favors from folks you know
Featured Projects (3 of 31)
Browse ProjectsBrowse ProjectsCitizenshipWorks Innovation Fund
To create the CitizenshipWorks Innovation Fund to invest in new tools and technologies that help legal permanent residents become U.S. citizens
Code for America
To support a program that increases engagement and transparency in government by asking top developers and designers to become CFA fellows, giving a year of service in city governments, including two Knight communities
Expanding Code for America
For Code for America's work focused on rewiring government to better engage with citizens using innovative technology solutions
About our Tech for Engagement strategy
Knight’s Tech for Engagement initiative seeks to use the power of technology to bring people together to shape their future.
Knight believes technology has the potential to transform democracy by enabling citizens to directly engage with neighbors and leaders in ways we have not yet imagined. So far, there has been visible progress, with online tools gathering ideas and opinions on civic issues, and open platforms making some government functions more efficient. But fulfilling the true potential - to engage citizens in solving the major challenges of their communities - remains ahead of us.
Through our investments, Knight wants to push the field forward, seeking ways to use technology to create citizen-centered solutions. Technology-powered engagement can represent a new level of citizenship, one that strengthens democracy and leads to transformational community change.
The initiative funds in three areas:
1) Deepening public participation: We are looking for ways technology can help develop deeper neighbor-to-neighbor connections, facilitate community dialogue, or make it easier for residents and leaders to create solutions to our thorniest challenges.
2) Opening government: We are seeking to accelerate the movement of positioning government as less of a service provider, and more of a platform that empowers people to better their communities. Our funding supports sustainable tools and projects positioned to scale.
3) Building infrastructure for the field: To date, the Tech for Engagement field is creative, skilled and passionate, but small. We want to help build a cohesive network of individuals and organizations that contribute to this work, and recruit more technologists and social change leaders to take part.
Tech for Engagement Project Categories
Staff
Damian Thorman
National Program Director
