FAQ

Civic Network is an open source platform created as a way to help communities achieve their goals. It provides a user-friendly place to connect, collaborate, and coordinate across efforts by sharing documents, tracking actions, and managing projects.

Civic Network was created by The Civic Canopy as a technology solution to respond to the many challenges that people face when trying to work together. It offers a way for groups to connect, coordinate, and collaborate through sharing documents, tracking actions, and managing members and projects. Beyond helping individual networks to be more effective, Civic Network exists to be a place where disparate groups become aware of each other, discover shared outcomes, learn from each other, and coordinate their efforts.

Anyone and everyone who strives to improve their community through collaboration! While Civic Network was specifically built to support collaborative efforts in Colorado, the platform is open to collaborators everywhere to use.

Civic Network is free. For everyone. Really. 

Civic Network was created to be more than a software platform and more than a social network. Civic Network serves a deliberate civic purpose and is a place where our individual efforts can come together to do good, better. 

Our team is small, but our support is mighty. We encourage you to start by searching this help site for answers to your questions, as well as information like tips, tricks and tutorials.

If you don’t find what you are looking for, or simply want to talk to someone about your questions or discuss how Civic Network might work for you and your group, we are always happy to connect! Reach out to us at [email protected] and someone on The Civic Canopy team will get back with you shortly.

You can ask your questions in the comment box at the bottom of this page and we will post a response. Or, you can simply email us at [email protected]

Networks cannot be private, but you can choose for some of your network’s content to be private. Civic Network exists to be a platform where our individual efforts can add up to something more. To be able to connect, coordinate, and collaborate across networks, we all need a way to know who is out there doing the work. For that reason, basic information provided by networks about themselves is publicly accessible, to both users who have Civic Network profiles and those who don’t.

There is an option to set some content as private so that only members of the network can see it. Content that can be made private includes: documents, meetings, actions, results, and indicators. To make content private, locate the button that says “Private or Public” when adding or editing content. Click the button and select private from the dropdown menu instead of the default setting of public. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue save button. These settings can be changed at any time.

Yes, content you have set as public can be seen by people who do not have an account and/or are not logged in. While most features are accessible to non-logged in users if the content is set as public, there are a few features that cannot be accessed without a person being logged in. These features include results, indicators, and strategies. If you would like a person without an account to see that content, you can send them a direct link to the content by copying and pasting the URL from your web browser.

Without an account you will not be able to create or join networks or contribute other content. Additionally, there is some content you will not be able to view. For example, if the specific network you are accessing has set any of their content as private, then you will only be able to view the content if you have a Civic Network account and are a member of that specific network.

Yes, the site can be accessed and used on a phone or tablet. Though, the site looks best and is easiest to navigate on a computer.

There is not a limit on the total amount of content that a network can store on the site. You are welcome to upload the following files to store directly on your network: text, pdf, doc, png, jpg, gif, ppt, xlsx, docs, and pptx. There is a limit for the size of an individual file that can be upload. The limit is 100 MB. If you have file larger than 100 MB, such as a video, it’s best to store it somewhere else such as a Google drive, Dropbox, Vimeo, or YouTube and then provide the link to the file on Civic Network.

Yes! An individual user must opt in to receive automated emails that notify them when a network they are a member of adds new content such as a new document or meeting. The default setting for users is to NOT receive notifications. Here are instructions for individual users to turn on or off notifications.

Are you logged in? Check the top right corner of the webpage. If you see your name and profile picture, then you are logged in. If you see the “Login” then you are currently not logged in to your Civic Network account. If you are logged in and still experiencing trouble, reach out to us at [email protected]

The two primary reasons the link to a document would no longer work are:

• the name of the document was changed (the name of the document is in the link, so if the name changes then the link changes)
• the document was moved to another folder or network
  

This means you used Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn to create and log into your Civic Network account and you will not be able to reset your password via Civic Network. Instead, you’ll need to go through the specific social platform (Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn) to change your password. For more information on resetting your Civic Network password, click here.

If you’re confident you pressed saved to your changes, then this is likely caused by “caching”, which is what computers do to save information and images on webpages so that it can be loaded more quickly the next time. Your computer essentially saves images from website you’ve previously visited so when you reload the webpage it relies on those images to load it more quickly. Caching is likely the reason you are not immediately seeing the changes you made to content on Civic Network. Your computer has saved the way the webpage looked before you made changes and has not downloaded and saved the new image yet. If you simply wait a few hours or days, then the changes should appear. If you want to see your changes more quickly here are some things you can try:

• Restart your web browser or computer and/or log out and log back in to Civic Network.
• Log in to Civic Network using another web browser. For example, if you were using chrome and don’t see the changes you made, try using firefox or safari and likely the changes you made will be visible.
• Clear your cache. All web browsers have the option to clear the cache of web browsing data. A quick google search should provide you some directions on how to clear the cache on the specific web browser you are using. Keep in mind this may log you out of websites where your password is saved, requiring you to log in again.