Five Ways Governments Can Encourage Civic Startups

2012 is shaping up to be the “Year of the Civic Startup’ according to Mark Headd. In GovFresh.com he proposes five ways that governments can take to help encourage and foster the growth of civic startups.

Headd defines a “civic startup’ as a startup company with a focus on civic improvement or social good. They look and act just like other kinds of startups, but their aims are somewhat loftier. ElectNext and SeeClickFix are a good example of a civic startups ‘“ their aim is to become profitable and viable (just like other startups), but if these ventures are successful they will impact people far beyond their direct customer/user base.

In 2012, Headd believes that state and local governments will connect the dots on open data and begin to see it as a viable economic development tool for encouraging the development of new businesses and the creation of civic startups.

Here are five steps that governments can take to help encourage and foster the growth of civic startups in 2012:

1. View open government data as an economic development tool
2. Codify open data requirements
3. Reform the government procurement process
4. Showcase civic applications and companies
5. Manage expectations

More info

GovFresh: Five ways governments can encourage civic startups

See also: Civic Startups (Web 2.0 Expo Slides)