Why 2016 is going to be "the Facebook election"; why Berlin has become the global hub for anti-surveillance culture; how some American cities are fighting to expand their public broadband services; and much, much more. Read More

Announcing PDM's new project, Civic Hall; how the GOP's 2014 voter contact program worked; civic tech and volunteerism; and much, much more. Read More

Here at Personal Democracy Media, we have some big news. We're launching a major new project called Civic Hall. It's a vibrant, collaborative community center and event space in the Flatiron District of Manhattan where civic tech innovators from diverse backgrounds can work, network, learn and organize together to tackle and solve civic problems at scale. With the generous support of our founding sponsors Microsoft, the Omidyar Network and Google, and founding partners like New America, The New York Tech Meetup and others, we are excited to tell you that we're on our way! Read More

Debating what happened to the Democrats' vaunted tech-powered turnout machine in 2014; how Healthcare.gov hurt Democratic incumbents; understanding the participatory engine that is Wikipedia; and much, much more. Read More

Inside the GOP's big listening machine; how the midterm vote played out on Facebook and Twitter; how tech isn't (and is) addressing inequality; and much, much more. Read More

Facebook ran its "voter megaphone" initiative in the United States Tuesday, letting users indicate whether they are voting and see similar messages from their friends, as our Micah Sifry has been covering in detail. But what about the possibility of actually being able to verify that your Facebook friends have voted? That is the functionality made possible through a tool in use over the past week ins Oregon, Washington and Colorado. Built by developer Josh Cohen, it lets users check whether their Facebook friends in those states participated in early voting based on ballot data and send them a Facebook message. Read More

Why big data is bad for political reporting and campaigns; tracking Facebook's voter megaphone; a progress report on the Loomio group decision-making platform; and much, much more. Read More

Today is Election Day in the United States, and along with the many efforts by campaigns and advocacy groups to get out their voters, Facebook is taking a big step to push people to the polls. As I reported last week for Mother Jones, for the first time in six years, Facebook says it is rolling out its "voter megaphone"--a banner across the top of each user's page like the one shown above--to all of its users above the age of 18 in the United States. That's somewhere upwards of 150 million people, if all goes according to plan. Will it work? And will the company do it in a neutral manner? We're asking readers to help answer those questions. Read More

A request for proposals under consideration for a new revamping of recreation.gov, the government's portal for outdoor trip planning, could be an opportunity to apply the innovative vision of 18F, the new digital services team within the General Services Administration, established in the spring, and of the new U.S. Digital Service within the Office of Management and Budget, civic technologists say. Read More