The document discusses Hull, an open platform for building connected civic apps. Hull aims to provide a common ground for citizens and developers to build an ecosystem of apps that can integrate and extend each other. It describes some current challenges around disconnected civic tech experiences that are costly to maintain. Hull offers a rich set of open and extensible features to enable things like user accounts, social login, activity feeds, collections, and integration with other networks and data sources. The goal is to enhance civic engagement and data-driven decision making through open solutions and problem solving.