Investigating the challenges and opportunities for civil society to thrive in the digital age.

The digital age has expanded the potential for civil society participation, and it has presented new challenges and threats. Our dependencies on digital software and infrastructure that are commercially built and government surveilled require new insights into how these digital systems work and how we can engage themsafely, ethically and effectively for civil society’s purposes.

We engage researchers,  practitioners and policymakers across four domains:

• Technology: software and hardware designed for the values and interest of civil society actors
• Organizations: structures and practices that align with civil society missions and protect institutional independence from markets or governments
• Policy: legal practices and regulatory frames that protect the building blocks of civil society, including free association, speech, and privacy
• Norms: social norms and practices that promote safe and ethical data collection, generation, and use