Civic Tech Field Guide
A curated directory of projects, tools, and organizations using technology for democracy and the common good.
10 free resources on this topic. Everything here is free and hand-picked. You can also search within this topic.
A curated directory of projects, tools, and organizations using technology for democracy and the common good.
Directory of 400+ social media accounts run by MIT schools, departments, labs, centers and programs.
A running list of AI coding agents, app builders and IDEs, personally tested by maker John Rush, with a directory and founder guide alongside.
Searchable directory of more than 10,000 open-source projects on GitHub, grouped by category and sortable by stars and community activity, built around finding free alternatives to paid software.
Why I recommend it: Good starting point when a subscription is eating your budget. Stars mean popularity, not maintenance, so before you commit check the last commit date and whether anyone answers issues.
A free directory mapping the AI agents you can text on iOS and the infrastructure behind them.
From the site: A map of the agents you can text on iOS and the rails behind them.
Why I recommend it: A quick way to see what people are actually shipping as text-message agents.
A directory of grassroots efforts pushing back on large-scale AI — protests, alternatives, trackers and accountability projects, organized by the systems they target.
Why I recommend it: The single best starting point if you want to know who is organizing around AI harms, not just writing about them.
A directory of worker-owned technology cooperatives you can hire instead of a conventional agency.
Why I recommend it: Practical if you or a client need tech work done and want a different ownership model.
Directory of early-stage startups backed by leading investors, with funding news and company profiles in one place.
Why I recommend it: Great for building a target list of companies before anyone else has heard of them.
Searchable list of Techstars accelerator programs by city and industry, with application windows.
Why I recommend it: Sort by program focus, not by prestige. A niche program with the right mentors beats a famous one that does not know your market.
Directory of women's funds and gender-equity funders you can search by region and focus.
Why I recommend it: Use the directory to find local funders instead of competing nationally for the same few grants.