This library of "DemTools" consists of software, approaches, toolkits and guides that DemTech regards as trusted technology-related resources for the democracy community. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather a curated list of tools and resources known by DemTech experts to be valuable for enabling democratic actors to conduct their work in a safe, reliable, and cost effective way.
Before you get started, please read these important considerations for using digital tools.
Polis is a platform for facilitating discourse on an issue. It was designed to help overcome disagreements and find consensus by mapping out the positions of different groups and finding common ground while highlighting the main areas of dissent. Users go through and agree or disagree with a…
Your Priorities is a tool for citizen engagement designed to gather feedback on a variety of different topics. It allows users to post and vote on different ideas, and can be used in a variety of ways from identifying problems for the government to fix, to brainstorming ideas for new policies…
Decidim is an open-source citizen participation platform that allows governments to empower people to participate in the policy process. The platform was first used in Barcelona and has since been utilized in over 30 countries. Decidim is a complex platform with a wide variety of features. It…
ODK Collect is an Android data collection app used for collecting structured data. The app uses an open data standard which means it can be used with various databases (for example ODK, KoboToolbox, or Apollo). Administrators set up a form or questionnaire in the database using question types…
Bitwarden is a digital password manager. Such systems allow you to set up secure vaults to store long, unique passwords for all your accounts without needing to remember them each individually. If properly secured and used, this allows individuals and organizations to enhance their account…
A contact relationship management (CRM) platform that has the ability store, track and segment large volumes of contact data and use it to take actions, like send messages via SMS and email. NDI hosts CiviCRM (or Civi for short) for partners through its DemCloud cloud-…
A crowdmapping system that empowers citizens to flag problems in their communities. NDI hosts Fix My Streets for partners through its DemCloud cloud-hosting service. The NDI-hosted version of Fix My Streets is sometimes called Fix My Community because it can be used to…
OpenEdX is an open-source learning management system (LMS). The platform allows administrators to create digital courses for online and remote learning.
Many organizations rely on information collection in their work, whether in the form of notes and images or structured data collected using forms. Tella provides a data collection app designed for security from the ground up, making it an excellent choice for those doing human rights abuse…
Alissa for North Olania! is a mobile-friendly, single-player choose your own adventure game designed to teach digital security best practices - especially to those active in political or civic campaigns. As the campaign manager for Alissa Orme, a first-time…
Deflect provides solid protection from distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on websites. Built for and by people within the human rights and democracy community, Deflect can help defend against some of the most common ways a malicious actor may try to take down an organization’s online…
Without a trustworthy computer, no aspect of our digital lives is secure. For those with a strong desire to keep themselves safe online, and willing to make some sacrifices in ease of use to do so, the free, open-source Tails operating system is a great option.
Text messaging is one of the most popular forms of communication today. Signal is a full-featured, easy to use messaging app that is one of the best around. Unlike WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or basicSMS, Signal additional cost beside your cellular data plan, is very secure, and…
Transifex is a popular, well-established online translation platform, allowing a global group of volunteers, paid interpreters, or machine translators to collaborate on new “localizations” into any desired languages. While built for translating software, it can be used for other purposes as well…
Civic, political, and governmental groups need to keep in touch with their people, and reaching audiences on their near-omnipresent phones has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to do so. Twilio is a commercial provider of mobile device connectivity via text, messenger app, and…
Cloudflare provides protection from distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on websites and many common forms of hacking. One of the largest companies in the internet infrastructure space, Cloudflare has special programs aimed at protecting human rights, democracy, and government…
Integrating technology can be a positive for local government,…
Civic, political, and governmental groups need to keep in touch with their people, and reaching audiences on their near-omnipresent phones has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to do so. Telerivet is one of the easiest ways for small organizations to have conversations, using a…
Many civic organizations and governments collect data in their work, but gathering useful insights from spreadsheets can be challenging. Data visualization tools such as Tableau can help an organization understand what their information means and use it to make informed decisions.
