Technology Tools

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-hosting service.

Apollo is an open-source data management system that is designed to support citizen election observation and other large-scale structured data collection. NDI hosts Apollo for partners through its DemCloud cloud-hosting service.

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 documentation, working in sensitive environments, or who are particularly concerned about privacy. Tella can be connected to a cloud-based server for automatic uploading of information when online.

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 report more than just problems with streets.

OpenEdX is an open-source learning management system (LMS). The platform allows administrators to create digital courses for online and remote learning.

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 presidential hopeful in the fictional country of North Olania, players are tasked with boosting Alissa’s popularity to help her win the election, while navigating digital security incidents on a shoestring budget. The game is built using Twine - an open-source tool for telling interactive stories. 

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.

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.

Many organizations want to know what people think about a given topic, understand their needs, or receive feedback. SurveyMonkey is one of the largest survey creation tools out there, with millions of questions answered in their system every day. With very little technical expertise, people can put together their own form to gather useful information from online audiences.

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 cloud-hosted contact database to send messages in various ways, including over the cellular connection of Android phones you control yourself.