Yes, There Is An App For That, My favorite new civic-engagement startups for 2013

I recently attended #govfest, an event put on by Fosterly and I was amazed by the number of startups working in the public sphere.  I know it has been a growing trend for a while now, but seems to have exploded recently (in what feels like the last few days).

When I started working in state and local government relations there were few choices for vendors of any kind.  Most of us were doing bill tracking by hand and few were lucky enough to hire one of two or three big multi-state lobbying firms.  I am not sure if all the state legislatures were even on line when I did my first nation-wide tracking project - looking for and tracking bills related to disparities in healthcare and other issues.  You get the picture.

Then I discovered Capwiz and fell in love with the idea of e-advocacy (not sure if that is an official term).  I was an early adopter and was constantly amazed by the new tools and services they kept rolling out.  There were a few others advocacy platforms that took off about that same time, but to me Capwiz was the far and away best in its class.  

Outside of Capwiz, there seemed to be a lull.  Maybe not really a lull, more accurately I was just uninspired.  I know it wasn't a complete lull because one day I was listening to a speaker talk about the future of grassroots advocacy and they said that it was not going to be long before we would be asking, "What is our FaceBook strategy?" (maybe they actually said MySpace, which could explain the lack of inspiration) when planning grassroots campaigns.  And then came Foursquare.  And Twitter.  It seemed like every year something new would come out that was considered a "game changer" that I never believed would really catch on for advocacy.

One day someone told me about POPVOX.  Right away I knew they were different.  POPVOX seemed to be ground breaking.  No longer would we send emails or faxes or letters to the hill, but real data.  And I got my first smartphone.  And open government started to happen.  Mayor Bloomberg's right hand man Kevin Sheekey launched BGov.  And Mayor Corey Booker became a superhero on Twitter.

That brings me to where I am today, which is again "all in" on tech and startups, and especially tech startups, for government relations, civic engagement and advocacy.  These startups are everywhere.  There are some great new grassroots platforms - VoterVoice (not really new, but recently launched their DC office) and Votility.  New state legislative and regulatory tracking services like my favorite startup - BillTrack50 (which was recently named one of Denver's Hottest Startups).  And apps for EVERYTHING!  State and local governments have their own apps for news and information (Delaware has a great app), to legislatures (I really like Ohio and Utah), to procurement sites (Virginia's eVA is a great example) and everything in between.

Here are a few of my favorites that I have been introduced to this year (most in the last couple of months) ...

• TrendPo - Not really an advocacy tool, but a great way for elected officials and candidates to see how well they are connecting with the public - in case the single digit approval ratings weren't enough of a clue.  JD Chang and his team are going get famous calling races based on social media scores.

• Capitol Bells - A new all-mobile app for grassroots advocacy.  Let's you vote right along with your Member of Congress.  It is unique in that the data goes right to the Member, because your Congressman downloaded the app to keep track of votes.  They have some kinks to work out, but I think they are onto something.

• FiscalNote - These guys are brand new, I haven't even seen their beta yet.  However, I get intrigued when one startup comes up in conversations five or six times in one night and each time by a different person.  I get really intrigued when the founder tells me he can tell if a bill is going to pass or not by the second reading. 

• CitySourced - I recently tweeted that if Mayor Booker were an app, he would be CitySourced. Citizens report problems to local governments, they get properly routed and fixed.  I just hope that when responders email their responses to citizen activists they simply use the immortal words of Mayor Booker, "I got this!"

• PollVault - Also, brand new. An election information site that matches the views from groups you trust to the best candidate for you to vote for.  Just in time for the big New York City mayoral race and gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. 

So there are five very different startups but all doing great things in the public/civic sphere.  I am excited to see what is coming next!