Field Trip

Councilmatic Chicago

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2025-007

Executive Summary

Councilmatic Chicago is a website that helps people understand what their city government is doing. Unlike its sister project in New York City (which shut down), Chicago's version is still running today. But "still running" doesn't mean "problem-free."

Key Insight: Councilmatic Chicago has survived not because it found a sustainable revenue model, but because it is embedded within a mission‑driven company that can absorb its costs—making the project resilient in the short term but fragile in the long term.

When Mindset Shifts Transform Adoption

Article ID: AN-LLE-2026-003 Insights: This article highlights supplier mindset (CASE-LLE-2026-003) vs collaborator mindset (CASE-LLE-2026-002). In the outreach and sustainability stage, success depends less on distributing ready-made solutions and more on cultivating relationships that invite joint experimentation and shared ownership. The transition from “learn and use” to “build and evolve together”

Lessons from Coris backstory

Article ID: AN-LLE-2026-002 Abstract: Early-stage community projects face distinct challenges around momentum, coordination, and sustainability that differ fundamentally from both traditional organizations and mature open source projects. This article documents patterns for navigating these challenges, drawn from the Coris community platform development experience in 2024 and 2025 (CASE-LLE-2026-003). The key

Issue 3: Access to Democracy

For January 2026, this issue we focused in projects we had in Civic Tech Toronto during 2025. Also projects related to them. This month we had 5 cases, 1 analysis and 1 best practices added to the knowledge base. 3+ articles under review. 7 Days free trial access to all

Coris (Backstory)

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2026-003 Executive Summary A volunteer team in Toronto spent more than 8 months trying to promote and improve a digital democracy tool that helps gather public opinion. They started with excitement and good intentions but got stuck in endless discussions for months. What changed everything was treating volunteers