User:Miawach/Civic Technology

Civic technology in Asia
I am adding more information to the the Japan subsection, and am also creating a Nepal subsection under the civic tech in Asia section.

Plan of Action:

1. Civic tech in Japan

2. Citizen-led initiatives

3. Government-led initiatives

4. Civic tech in Nepal (new subsection and overview paragraph)

5. Citizen-led initiatives

Japan
In Japan, the Civic Tech movement has been rapidly growing since around 2013. Japan's civic tech initiatives have been primarily citizen-led, but more recently, Japan has taken on government-led initiatives as well.

Citizen-led initiatives
The purpose of civic tech initiatives are to educate the population to use technology as a democratization tool and to access public information.

Although the rapid growth of the civic tech movement in Japan started around 2013, the movement first came about in 2011 after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns that occurred in the Tōhoku region. After the Fukushima disaster, citizen-led initiative Safecast, which allows citizens to collect and distribute radiation data, was created.

The mission of citizen-led initiative Code for All is to make data more accessible to the public and to encourage the use of technology for the democratization of governance. The Code for Japan chapter is one of several chapters started by Code for All. Although Code for Japan is a citizen-led initiative, it also works closely with the government. Policy Advisor of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs, Naoki Ota, who is a promoter of Code for Japan's civic tech projects. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Code for Japan also developed stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government that informs the public about the number of coronavirus cases and reductions in metropolitan subway usage.

A different citizen-led project led by JP-Mirai is working to release an app that allows migrant workers to file complaints and address issues regarding items like visas and taxation. The app currently remains unnamed.

Government-led initiatives
While civic technology initiatives in Japan had mostly been citizen-led, the inception of the coronavirus pandemic encouraged the Japanese government to transition to digitization.

This is because former in-person practices moved to the digital space in lieu of the coronavirus. The government plans to focus on the digitization aspect of its functions: the implementation of more sophisticated systems in the central and local governments in order to increase the security of private and personal information and the transference from the primary use of Hanko –– a seal used in lieu of a signature on printed documents –– to digital verifications and documents in order to increase efficiency.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has also made strides in light of the pandemic. Through the use of a copyright that allows for malleable content distribution Creative Commons licensing, and open-source development platform Github, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has allowed other collaborators to add to the data and code of the project created by Code for Japan.

Nepal
Civic technology in Nepal is growing, and has been utilized for tasks like mapping, migrant work technology, digital literacy and open data understanding in Nepal thus far.

Citizen-led initiatives

 * Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL), founded in 2013, is a civic technology company based in Nepal that works actively to train residents in Nepal and other Asian countries in mapping their communities via OpenStreetMap (OSM). During the 2015 earthquake in Nepal (magnitude of 7.3), organizations responsible for aid relief and reconstruction used OSM to navigate the disaster.
 * In 2016, a new migration tool called Shuvayatra (Safe Journey) was launched in Nepal for the migrant workers of Nepal. The Asia Foundation worked with the Non-Residential Nepali Association (NRNA) and software firm, Young Innovations, in order to develop this mobile app that provides Nepali migrant workers with financial, education and training resources, as well as reliable employment services. The technology was developed in response to the often exploitative promises of working abroad as a migrant worker.
 * In its beginnings, Code for Nepal, a non-profit organization that began in the United States, provided workshops in digital literacy for women in Kathmandu. Since, the organization has evolved to launching open data and civic tech products, as well as organizing conferences and scholarships for young men and women.
 * Another civic tech non-profit called Open Knowledge Nepal has also been working to make data open and accessible to Nepali residents.

Category:Civil engineering