Luke Jordan, MIT GOV/LAB’s 2021 practitioner-in-residence, served as the keynote for Code for Japan Summit in 2022. Below is a video of his discussion with Summit participants on the guide he developed while at MIT.

“Don’t Build It. A Guide for Practitioners in Civic Tech” a guide by Luke Jordan on how to start a new civic technology project (or, better yet, how to avoid building something in the first place). The guide provides a clear-eyed dose of reality on civic tech, and practical advice on teams, timelines, metrics, and more. If you’ve ever been asked to “build an app,” this guide is for you. More on the guide in MIT News.

A graphic in Japanese of key words and themes from his keynote talk by artist Misa Tokunaga (see below “Why good ideas fail” How civic tech theory fails in practice, and how to start fixing it).

Many ways — text, video and graphics —to explore Luke’s “Dont’t Build It” guide!