BC + AI
Applications · Opens Aug 1Internet Archive Canada × BC + AI

Build something the public record can remember.

The AI Builders Fellowship is a six-week invitation to make one useful, strange, or revealing project with a Canadian civics and open-government collection from Internet Archive Canada's work on Democracy's Library. It is open to individual builders anywhere in the world, and the work is remote.

Join the waitlistRead the brief

Before applications open

Get one email when the call opens.

Applications open August 1. Leave your email and we will send you a single note the day it opens. This is not an application, it does not hold a place in line, and it gives you no advantage in review. Read the brief below while you wait.

Applications open August 1. Joining the waitlist gets you one email when they do. It is not an application and gives you no priority.

The brief

collection_01 / public_memory

Use AI to help people search, understand, question, or creatively encounter Canada's public record.

The collection

A large, real, and uneven record of Canadian government publications.

Explore it at archive.org/details/governmentpublications, part of Internet Archive Canada's open-government holdings.

104,104
text items
~22.1 million
scanned page images
~48.25 TB
of material
107
tagged sub-collections

The coverage is uneven, and that is the point

Federal material is substantial, but provincial and municipal coverage leans heavily toward Ontario and Alberta and is thin elsewhere. About 34.5 percent of items carry no recorded date. Treat those gaps as part of the story rather than something to paper over. The most useful projects tend to work with the unevenness, not around it.

The fellowship is offered by Internet Archive Canada with BC + AI, whose community-building work across British Columbia and beyond provides the coordination, mentorship, and public platform behind the program.

What you receive

Enough structure to finish. Enough freedom to surprise us.

01

$5,000 award

Funding for one selected fellowship project.

02

Archive context

A prepared Canadian civics and open-government collection plus guidance on how it was assembled.

03

A public moment

A conditional October 28 showcase at Futureproof Festival, if the work is ready.

Possible directions

A product is welcome. So is an artwork, an investigation, or a new interface to memory.

  1. 01

    Make the record navigable

    Build a search, map, timeline, or question-answering interface that helps someone find a useful path through Canadian public records.

  2. 02

    Reveal a civic pattern

    Trace how a policy, place, institution, or public concern changes across time, sources, and levels of government.

  3. 03

    Turn archives into culture

    Create a visual, sonic, literary, or generative work that makes the collection legible without flattening its provenance.

Selection signals

Small enough to ship. Specific enough to matter.

01
Public value
A specific person or community can use, question, or learn from the result.
02
Archive fit
The idea needs this Canadian civics and open-government collection, not just any dataset.
03
Buildability
The proposed scope can reach a credible working artifact during the fellowship window.
04
Clarity
The application names assumptions, limitations, and how sources will remain visible.

The clock

From an idea to something people can encounter.

  1. Applications open

    Read the brief, explore the collection, and tell us what you want to make.

  2. Applications close

    The final day to submit, 11:59 PM Pacific.

  3. Review

    Applications move through project review.

  4. Fellow selected

    The target date for the fellowship decision.

  5. Build

    A focused build period with archive context and BC + AI check-ins.

  6. Conditional showcase

    If the project is ready, present it at Futureproof Festival in Vancouver.

The application

Tell us what you want to make, who it helps, and why this archive is necessary.

A proposal needs three things at a minimum. Have them ready before you open the form.

The project
The tool, guiding question, or gap analysis you want to pursue, grounded in a specific part of the collection.
A work plan
A phase-by-phase or week-by-week breakdown of the 180 to 200 hours, showing the idea is scoped to the six-week window.
A success metric
What you will point to at the end as evidence the work succeeded, named by you rather than left for reviewers to infer.

We also ask for contact details, relevant experience, and confirmation that you can work through the build window. Applications are stored privately and reviewed by the selection team.

Questions before you apply? Contact BC + AI.

Join the waitlist