CIV.WORKS and PLACESPEAK ANNOUNCE JOINT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT FOR A PRIVACY-PROTECTED CIVIC NETWORK
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CIV.WORKS and PLACESPEAK ANNOUNCE JOINT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT FOR A PRIVACY-PROTECTED CIVIC NETWORK
For Immediate Release: Vancouver, British Columbia and Los Angeles, California, September 11, 2023 – PlaceSpeak Inc., a global leader in online location-based citizen engagement, and Civic Works, a global leader in privacy-protected, advertising-free social networks built for civic engagement, have announced a Joint Development Agreement to co-develop a privacy-protected civic/social network for civic engagement..
Twitter (X), and Meta, the world’s two leading global social networks, are now blocking online news in Canada. They pose a significant threat to democracy by controlling the distribution of social media, news, and perspectives. Their business models are based on selling user data and the psychometric characterization of user data (posts, links, likes, friends, comments) to advertisers and harmful political groups. Such platforms do not have effective safeguards to mitigate the spread of propaganda and disinformation, which often leads to highly negative societal consequences.
“Civ.Works is the product of very similar thinking to PlaceSpeak in that it seeks to authenticate the online civic engagement process with the objective, ultimately, to build trust in democracy. I met Civ.Works founder, George Polisner, after he famously resigned from Oracle in protest to its CEO joining Trump’s technology caucus. His courage and the strength of his convictions are evident in the creation of Civ.Works. Together, we are stronger in combining our compatible efforts in Canada and the United States, which has the potential to expand to other democracies and globally.” said Colleen Hardwick, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PlaceSpeak Inc.
“Location-based virtual constituent engagement is a vital part of civic participation. PlaceSpeak has been providing these services and has embodied the constituent/subscriber privacy in its design. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the founder, Colleen Hardwick, for many years, she’s a strong advocate for democracy, citizen empowerment, and civic action at the local level -all critical to providing a very comprehensive and complete civic/social network. I am thrilled our respective subject matter experts will be working collaboratively on network development ”, said George A. Polisner, Executive Director of Civic Works.
Engagement is now underway between PlaceSpeak’s and Civic Works’ research and development teams on joint development activities under the agreement. The two companies aim to merge their respective technology portfolios and extend their functionality toward a complete, comprehensive, privacy-protected, advertising-free civic/social network for the web, iOS, and Android.
About PlaceSpeak Inc.
PlaceSpeak is a location-based civic engagement platform, developed with the support of the National Research Council of Canada IRAP. PlaceSpeak’s mission is to enable evidence-based decision-making through online proof of residency while protecting privacy-by-design. PlaceSpeak’s high-level vision reflects its commitment to democratic principles including popular control, considered judgement, inclusiveness, transferability and transparency. PlaceSpeak’s citizen-centric model puts people at the heart of the process and provides decision-makers with confidence that the feedback collected is coming from real, relevant people – not bots or trolls.
For more information about PlaceSpeak, Inc. please visit https://placespeak.com
About Civic Works
Civic Works develops web and app-based technology for the public good. Our core product is social.civ.works, a social network with an important purpose. We believe that a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged public is necessary for any form of a meaningful democracy to thrive. Our solutions are predicated upon the thinking that we can all work together to evolve society toward democracy, justice and equity for all. We do not sell or share any subscriber data -our product is our product, not our subscribers.
For more information about Civic Works, please visit https://civ.works.
