Support Independent Civics Research & Advocacy

SOCii builds independent, public-interest civic technology to help people hold power to account, not just this election-cycle, but over the long term.

Across Australia, decisions about housing, infrastructure, resources and public spending are increasingly shaped by private and external interests, with limited transparency and weak public scrutiny. Without high-quality, independent civic tools, communities are left trying to challenge complex systems with incomplete information.

This campaign supports SOCii’s research and technology work to change that.

Your donation helps fund the development and long-term operation of:

• the Australian General Independent Census (AGIC)

• the Australian Independent Model for Housing Reform (AIM-HR)

• and our newest major project — a live and historical national map of Australia showing public and private infrastructure and resource projects, including:

  • mines, pipelines, roads, rail, ports and toll roads

  • how much public money is invested

  • how much public return is generated

  • how much private capital is invested

  • and how much private return is extracted

This platform is designed to make visible, for the first time in one place,  how public wealth is created, transferred and captured across Australia.

SOCii exists because meaningful accountability cannot depend on governments, political parties or private platforms to audit themselves. Independent civic infrastructure is essential if communities, journalists, researchers and advocates are to challenge decisions that shape housing access, public services, environmental outcomes and economic opportunity.

Your support directly funds:

• independent research and data engineering

• hosting and infrastructure (including Vercel and Convex Cloud for all SOCii apps)

• ethical AI inference used for modelling, analysis and interactive tools

• accessibility, security and public availability of our platforms

• the development of new public-interest tools as community needs grow

This is collective infrastructure for democracy.

By supporting this campaign, you are helping build the shared tools required to reclaim public oversight of public resources — and to push back against extractive systems that quietly reshape our future without public consent.

Our funding goal

$650,000 for the next 12 months

This supports a small, nimble Sydney-based team of researchers and developers and covers:

• platform infrastructure and cloud operations

• AI inference and data processing

• ongoing research and public reporting

• accessibility and security

• and the continued expansion of SOCii’s public tools

What your contribution helps make possible

• Transparent, independent analysis of how public money is spent

• Open access tools for journalists, researchers and community advocates

• Long-term monitoring of infrastructure and resource projects

• Public accountability that does not rely on corporate platforms or political gatekeepers

Why this matters

Real democratic accountability is not created by one investigation, one election or one organisation.

It is built when communities have durable, independent systems that make power visible and measurable over time.

Your donation is part of that collective effort.