The Open Planning Project Labs (TOPP Labs) is the new project incubator group inside The Open Planning Project (TOPP), a non-profit technology organization that empowers civil society through software, media, and smart urban policy.  So what do we do, exactly?  We build websites, hack open source software, and advocate for open systems in the civic sector.

We are a group working on ways to help people build community to solve problems, support advocacy efforts to get problems solved, increase civic involvement, monitor government… but this is a long list, every item on it is hard, and there’s anything but consensus on how to actually accomplish any of these goals. We’ve experimented with quite a few ideas inside TOPP and TOPP Labs, and we’re not alone — experimentation is happening everywhere. We’re all building experience. But experience without reflection is wasted. “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

About The Civic Hacker blog

This blog is not TOPP Labs’ face to the world. This blog is not the image we want to present. It is not a description of what we want to be. This blog is what we are thinking. This blog is about what we’ve learned, and what we’re learning. If we don’t look stupid sometimes on this blog, then we’re not being honest with you and we’re probably not being honest with ourselves. We offer this blog with all due humility — we don’t have answers — but also with every ambition to find answers. And not just our answers, anyone’s answers.

Who writes this blog?

This blog is written by people associated with The Open Planning Project, mostly employees, mostly people in the TOPP Labs group. You’ll see the author listed on each post. There is no group authorship, and the ideas and opinions presented don’t singularly represent The Open Planning Project, though viewed collectively they represent the people who are writing, and the people who are writing are the people who make up TOPP.