This week was the one year anniversary of the Chicago OpenGov Hack Night.
Some quick stats on what’s gone on in the past year.
Chicago’s OpenGov Hack Night has been around for a year!
Congrats guys!
Francesca Rodriquez and Danielle DuMerer gave a presentation on the city’s efforts to close the digital divide.
The City of Chicago was one of the few major cities to receive a Broadband Technology Opportunities Grant. This grant is used to fund a number of projects in Chicago aimed at growing broadband adoption in Chicago.
The City received $16 million in BTOP funds to help build out Public Computing Centers and run comprehensive programs in some of Chicago’s more disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition, the MacArthur Foundation provided matching funds. LISC Chicago and the Smart Chicago Collaborative partnered with the city to administer the programs.
You can find all the public computing centers that are funded by the grant on WeConnectChicago.org.
Chicago’s done a lot of work to close the digital divide and continues to hammer away at the issue with the launch of the EveryoneOn campaign. EveryoneOn is a national program that aims to increase digital literacy and access to the high speed intenet. The program is being piloted in Chicago.
As part of the program, the city is partnering with Connect2Compete. Connect2Compete is a non-profit website where residents can search for affordable internet options near them. Residents simply enter their zip code and answer a few questions in order to see their options.
Previously, the City worked with Comcast to provide low-cost internet as part of the Internet Essentials initiative in 2011. The city has now expanded that option to include FreedomPop.
FreedomPop is a wireless router that uses the CLEAR 4G wireless network. (Smart Chicago is currently testing the devices across the city as part of the Civic User Testing Group.) With the FreedomPop routers, residents can get a gigabyte of free data each month. For $10/month, residents can increase that amount to 10GBs.
FreedomPop Routers
The city has made great strides to close the digital divide in the past two years. Here’s some examples of the work that’s gone on. (From the city’s website)
We’re excited to see what comes next.
Juan-Pablo Valez presented his thoughts on how we can get citizens involved in civic hacking.
Juan used a number of examples to help explain the process of civic hacking and how citizens can get involved.
The City’s health department distributes free flu shots every year to help keep Chicago healthy. This year the city heavily advertised on CTA to encourage residents to get a flu shot. However, it wasn’t always easy to find where to get a flu shot.
More civic hackers hard at work
Working with the city’s health department, Tom Kompare built the flu shot finder app. Once the app was built, it was adopted by the city.
Juan explains, “While the flu shot app won’t solve public health, it does solve a particular civic problem – and that’s good!”
As civic hackers start to work on these projects is that you discover the intricate of the way the city works. Secondcityzoning.org is an OpenCity website that lets you explore Chicago’s different zones. The site also educates people on what the zones actually mean.
Josh Kalov and Derek Eder discuss the schoolcuts.org app
The other big lesson is that once an app is built you need to get the word out. Jeanne partnered with Josh Kalov and the Open Data Institute to create a website that helps open up school data in a format easily understandable to parents. By helping to provide guidance to what parents needed, the end result was a site that helps parents and the community understand what’s happening with the school closing in Chicago.
Jean found the groups in Chicago that cared about the school closings and worked with them to help get the word out. Schoolcuts.org has now been featured in several press stories and is one of the most accessed civic apps coming out of Chicago.
Suzanna Vasquez, Executive Director of LISC Chicago, spoke about their Smart Communities program. Smart Communities works to increase digital access and digital literacy in the Chicago neighborhoods of Auburn Grsham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Humbolt Park, and Pilsen. LISC works with local partners to help support local initiatives to close the digital divide. A good example is the work done by Teamwork Englewood. (Who is working to raise funds to increase its Englewood Codes class to 30 students.)
LISC is a semi-finalist for the Knight Foundation News Challenge for their proposal “OpenGov for the rest of us” that hopes to use the same model to help open gov and civic hacking projects in the neighborhoods.
OpenGov Hack Night was proud to have Linsey Keck and Ashley Del Bianco as guests at this week’s hack night. They were part of the BTOP conference that was occurring in Chicago this week.
Linsey and Ashley run the BTOP grants in Philadelphia. Philadelphia and Chicago have a lot of similarities in terms of their open data policies, their efforts to close the digital divide and both cities have civic hacking events on a regular basis.
At next weeks Philly Tech Week, the team is running several events aimed at getting people to think about digital access issues. This includes an event designed to get all members of the tech community to talk about how we bridge the gap between the tech world and disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Next week is going to be Big Data Week in Chicago. There will be a number of events in the Chicago all during the week with many of these events being streamed online. You can get more information about these events by visiting bigdatachicago.com/chicago.
Building civic apps is hard work. There’s data that has to be cleaned up, code to be written, and a host of other problem solving issues that are unique to apps that take on civic challenges. Often, these apps are built on a volunteer basis during people’s free time.
Chicago has been at the forefront of civic app development. We’ve had our apps redeployed to cities like Boston, Phillidelphia and Oakland. Chicago’s civic development community has been featured in publications like TechPresident, Atlantic Cities, and Computer World. We’ve seen our apps presented on the air and on television.
It’s been a lot of work.
So, we’re excited that BuiltinChicago is adding a new Moxie Award catagory: Best Civic App.
The Moxie Awards are a celebration of Chicago’s startup community with awards going to startups, venture capitalists, mentors, and CTOs.
This year, BuiltinChicago has added four more award categories including Best Civic App. The category was started after a suggestion from Marty Malone who had been interning with the Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology last year.
Any civic app that uses government data to solve civic problems is eligible for a nomination. We know it’s going to be hard to pick a favorite, so you can nominate more than one app. Which is great news since there are over sixty civic apps! (You can see a list of all the apps here - Note that there are probably many more than are on this list.) Anyone can nominate a civic app by filling out a nomination form at the Moxie Awards website. Final award winners will be selected by a combination of 50% public votes and 50% judges’ votes.
The Moxie Awards will take place June 20th at Park West in Chicago. Tickets will be made available for purchase soon.
While we’re on the subject of civic apps, the Smart Chicago Collaborative offers free hosting on our Amazon AWS cloud servers as well as Heroku servers. Any app that uses open government data and helps to improve the citizen experiance is eligible for hosting. To get more details, you can fill out an interest form here.
The Smart Chicago Collaborative also offers free user testing to civic developers. The Civic User Testing Group is comprised of volunteer testers from all over the city. To have your app tested, simply fill out the interest form here.
Here’s some new Smart Chicago items from the last week or so:
The launch of the Civic User Testing Group
Last Friday we started the CUT Group, where regular Chicago residents get paid to test civic apps. Here’s a pretty good take on the nascent program from Michael Lipkin at WTTW: Civic Hackers Want You. We’ve had a pretty good response— 54 signups from 29 wards.
Launch of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge
Last Friday we helped launch the Illinois Open Technology Challenge, There are five $15,000 prizes, for a total of $75,000. There will be winners from each of the four pilot communities (Champaign, Rockford, Belleville, and the south suburbs of Chicago) as well as one prize for the use of statewide data.
Mobile Dev Day at U of I
Last week was Mobile Development Day sponsored by the Research Park at the University of Illinois. Great event with lots of interesting speakers and panels. I got a lot out of one panel that helped you think out platform choice (iOS, Android, Web). I wrote a talk on the importance of mobile in urban flow, below.
Cook County New Media Council
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced the Cook County New Media Council. Along with Blagica Bottigliero, I am co-chairing the council, whose goal is “to develop a digital strategy to better engage, serve, and connect with the public”. I expect great things here!
Last year the State of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago announced its first-of-its-kind application development competition, “Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois (A4MC)”. This was the first government-sponsored apps competition in Chicago, and the first anywhere that included collaboration among three different units of government. Here’s a press release about the competition from the City.
The A4MC competition was run by the Metro Chicago Information Center, which closed in March 2012. The A4MC website is no longer available on the Internet. Here’s a list of as many entries as we could cobble together, along with some basic info about the apps, listed in alphabetical order. We’re certain that we’re missing some things and we’d love to hear any updates about your apps or new projects. Please write me at doneil@cct.org with updates!
42nd Ward Crime answers the question: How safe is your block in the 42nd Ward. Select a block, give your email address and at no charge an alert will be sent to the user’s email automatically whenever an incident is reported.
AllSchedules gives you access to a huge collection of transit schedules, for different transport modes (bus, metro, train, tram ferry, etc.), in multiple cities around the world.
Bikes on Metra – “Can I bring my bike on Metra right now?” is an application that answers this question with a simple text display of “Yes, you can” or “No, you can’t” for each Inbound and Outbound Metra train. This text display tells the user when a bike can or cannot be brought on board a Metra train, help the user find bike parking around Metra stations, and advise them on specific rules and tips for bringing bikes aboard.
Buster is a CTA bus and train tracker application that is designed for the subset of transit users that use the service every day as their main mode of transit.
Chicago and Friends is a social networking online magazine that connects the community through geolocation and Facebook.
Chicago City Crime is an Android application that provides a convenient and simple mechanism for users to quickly get crime information, based on their current location in Chicago. By becoming more aware of how many and what types of crimes have been committed around their area, this allows them to make informed decision and action that will benefit them and their community.
Chicago Crime Viewer helps people find maps of crime in Chicago for a better understanding of neighborhood issues and trends. Quick access to this authoritative information supports real estate, commuting, and situational awareness decision making across the City of Chicago.
Chicago Lobbyists is an open data, open government, and open source project intended to improve the transparency of interactions between the City of Chicago and lobbyists and their clients.
Chicago Local Guide is an Android app meant to help local people as well as tourists find interesting places and points-of-interest near them; locate specials and promotions from local businesses; get updates on cultural, social, and technology events around Chicago; and hear breaking local news.
The Chicago Metro Information (CMI) Real Time Screensaver is an application designed to turn any unused computer screen into an electronic billboard displaying “up-to-the-second” data images for the Chicago Metropolitan Area, such as the forecast, street traffic, and public transportation schedules.
Chicago Recycle Helper is a web application that helps people locate recycling drop-off points for various materials in the Chicago area.
Chicago River Viewer is an interactive mapping web application designed as a one-stop resource, so that anyone interested in learning more about the Chicago Area Waterway System.
Chicago Rider is designed to get you the information you need quickly. See nearby stops, favorite stops, and real time bus schedules at a glance.
Chicago Service Request is a web application that allows you to store additional information about a service request either as a picture, mapped location, and/or note.
Chicago TIF Viewer is a unique map viewer allowing free access to data and services with three features: Tax Increment Financing District Information, Ward Contact Information and US Census 2010 Unemployment Rates.
Chicago Wards I-Map is an interactive map of Chicago which provides ward information for every square foot of the city, which includes the ward number, alderman’s name, telephone number, and office locations.
ChicagoTXT is a text message feature that allows the user to get upcoming train and water taxi departure times to any phone.
ChiTxt provides residents a way to access city information without the need of an internet connection. Anyone who has a cellphone with standard text-messaging can use ChiTxt to get information about city services like health facilities, soup kitchens, and more.
Chicago Public Library (CPL) Mobile is designed to provide easy access to Chicago Public Libraries’ (CPL) resources everywhere for users on mobile devices and tablets.
Crime Alert is a cross-platform web application that serves to alert users of crime in their community and surrounding area as rapidly as possible, and receive information that is relevant to their lives.
FasPark helps drivers find street parking in real time.
FixIt! is a mobile app that allows Chicagoans to report issues, like public property damages, that require city attention. It automatically requests confirmation from participating citizens who are in the area and uses their responses to highlight critical reports while sifting out erroneous ones.
FOIAshare brings together FOIA request logs so viewers can share insight on the information that they have requested, view trends and search for records.
GoChicago grants users the ability to make a list of the places in Chicago they’d like to see, view directions to each place on a map, or call the place for more information.
Got Game? is designed for residents to choose an activity, find parks near them that support the activity and schedule a game, enabling people to meet up and use the facilities at the parks near them.
Heads-Up Chicago pulls together up-to-date information of all the FREE Admission Days at local Chicago Museums and “Kids Eat Free” Days at local Chicago Restaurants, into a clearly outlined monthly calendar and daily planner format. This software will help parents to easily plan their family trips into the city, while helping Chicago organizations and institutions gain exposure while playing a part of creating memorable experiences for families within the Chicago Metro area.
IBikeChicago is an Android app built to support and enhances the biking community in Chicago. The application allows the users to locate bike routes, bike racks, and bike shops in the City of Chicago.
IFindit Chicago is an Android app that is designed to help low income and homeless Chicago residents connect with critical resources such as medical clinics, food pantries, shelters, etc in an easy to use, comprehensive and sharable format.
InThirty is an application used to see what Chicago city transportation resources that a user can access within a thirty-minute train, bus, or bike ride.
LIGHT BULB FINDER empowers consumers to make informed choices based on their own lighting needs and financial priorities. The app estimates the energy savings from changing the bulb and how long it will take for the new bulb to pay for itself. It also calculates a home’s total energy savings potential and environmental impact for recommended bulb replacements.
Green Habit (GHabit) is a social network with a simple goal to inspire people and organizations to create a greener and sustainable habitat. By inspiring green habits, each individual will take action to recycle, reuse and reduce waste, conserve resources, live a healthy lifestyle, demand eco-safe products, be innovative and implement new ideas, and energize the green movement.
MassUp.us is “Chicago’s Social Cycling System” web application that serves communications and navigation information needs for social and personal bicycling. It broadcasts maps, news, weather and more, for smartphones and text messaging. MassUp.us is also used for details about local events (“masses”), to find riders, check conditions, record, share and chat.
Metro Chicago Farmers’ Markets is a tool helping residents find farmers’ markets, identifying and plots on the map, the nearest open farmers market to the current location.
Mi Parque is a bilingual participatory placemaking web and smartphone application that helps residents of the community contribute and share their vision for the future of Little Village’s new parks.
“Mom, We’re Bored” is an application for anyone with children aged 2-12 to help find activities kids will love, going on right now, nearby.
OkCopay is a comparison search engine for medical care that allows users to search for the procedure they need, compare local providers, and view their actual prices. OkCopay hopes to be a trusted resource all Chicagoans can use to find the medical care they need.
OwtSee is an Android based and a web based application that presents information about the Chicago parks and community events in one convenient place.
See How Mobile is an application that calculates how ‘mobile’ any Chicago address is. It determines the distance to the nearest El, Metra, bus, or highway, and then tells good (or bad) those distances are compared to every other location in the city.
Recycle City Chicago is an application that helps Chicago residents recycle by finding the closest recycling drop-off facility and driving direction to that location.
SpotHero is an application that efficiently connects parking demand and parking supply. We allow parking spot owners to earn income by renting their spot when it’s unoccupied.
Spothole is an ongoing project to create tools to enable Chicago residents to more conveniently participate in the process of maintaining their neighborhoods’ streets, starting with Logan Square.
SweepAround.US helps Chicagoans find out when residential street sweeping will next occur in their neighborhood, and allows them to sign up for email or text message reminders or subscribe to calendar feeds.
Taxi Share Chicago is an application designed to increase efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and cut down on already congested streets and highways. The app allows users to find each other and share a cab to popular destinations around the city and to the major airports.
Techno Finder helps you find public WiFi near your location by using a cell phone or home phone, the web, or smart phone.
Thank you Officer is a web-based application initiative with the goal to mail a physical personal thank-you card to every police officer in Chicago, and let them know that we appreciate them.
TrailBlaze Chicago records and anonymously reports your bicycle tracks, allowing you to vote for new paths simply by carrying your phone while you bike.
Transit Stop: CTA Tracker is a quick and easy access to bus and train arrival time estimates for every Chicago Transit Authority bus and train stop.
Transitsocial -Transit Social is a unique and new place to search public transportation and socialize.
TreKing (Chicago) is an Android app that supports all four major transit systems in Chicago.
Vacant and Abandoned Building Finder is a tool for helping people and organizations find buildings in Chicago that are not in use and are potentially hazardous to the neighborhood.
WasMyCarTowed.com is a single-serving website that lets Chicagoans quickly answer the question, “Was my car towed?”
What’s Driving Costing You in Chicago? is a compact simple tool designed to educate divers about their driving costs. This tool provides map data including optional live traffic conditions and specific route information between start and end locations.
The Smart Chicago Collaborative has partnered with 1871, the digital startup center located at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, to accelerate civic innovation. We have two reserved seats at 1871 and we seek to fill them with small companies, civic leaders, and community members who are interested in building software using city, county, and state data to improve lives and build businesses.
I will be working there at 1871 a few days a month. Smart Chicago Advisory Board member and City of Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva will also spend some time at the center under the Smart Chicago banner, along with City of Chicago Chief Data Officer Brett Goldstein. We will also bring in staff and leadership from the City and our two other founding organizations, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. Another important component of our work at 1871 will be bringing in community members from all over Chicago to hear directly from them. Our goal is to stimulate the creation of technology that serves the needs of communities while building new businesses on civic data.
We are seeking a limited number of developers, designers, and other makers who would benefit from a few days a month in this unique environment. If you’re interested, complete this simple form to initiate the process. We expect to be in the space on May 1, 2012, and we’ll manage the schedule for our two seats with a Google calendar.
Please consider joining us.
The Smart Chicago Collaborative and the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Lab are seeking letters of interest for the design and development of an early childhood education web portal for the City of Chicago.
In order to increase transparency and empower parents, the City of Chicago is partnering with the Smart Chicago Collaborative and the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Lab (UEL) to develop a comprehensive early childhood education web portal. The portal will serve as a one-stop-shop for finding early learning programs, assessing program quality, and tracking data about Chicago’s early childhood systems. With the implementation of the State’s Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS), parents will be able to view each program’s star rating to assess quality across the city. The portal will also help parents understand their child’s eligibility for program, and allow for user interaction/input regarding programs. The portal will be fully operational by the end of July 2012, in time for parents to use it as a resource for the next school year.
This request for letters of interest is the first step in the process of finding a vendor, consultant, or group of consultants for the design and development of the web portal. We are looking for letters of interest that demonstrate an aptitude for and experience in this type of work, as well as some initial thoughts on how to execute it. We welcome letters from design firms, technology outfits, and independent developers who have ideas on how to get this done. The Web Portal Design partner for this project will be required to:
In the letter of interest, applicants should demonstrate experience, aptitude, and capacity in relation to the work described above. In addition, applicants should provide an estimated project timeline and a budget proposal. Letters of interest should not exceed three single-spaced pages, including budget and timeline information, and should be submitted to Dan O’Neil at DONeil@cct.org. Brief bios, CVs, or resumes for key personnel should be submitted with letters of interest and will not be included within the three page limit. Letters are due April 13, 2012.
Last month the Smart Chicago Collaborative, the Code for America Chicago fellows, and our key City partners met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to discuss our Open311 project. We got some great feedback from the Mayor and we’re excited about moving forward to the next phase of the project. More to come!
Last month the Smart Chicago Collaborative, the Code for America Chicago fellows, and our key City partners met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to discuss our Open311 project. We got some great feedback from the Mayor and we’re excited about moving forward to the next phase of the project. More to come! Mayor Rahm Emanuel discusses Chicago’s Code for America (CfA) project with Chief Technology Officer John Tolva, the CfA project team, and the Smart Chicago Collaborative. From the Mayor’s left: Ben Sheldon, Code for America, Rob Brackett, Code for America, Daniel X. O’Neil, Smart Chicago Collaborative, Kathleen Strand, Mayor’s Office, John Tolva, Mayor’s Office, Kyla Williams, Smart Chicago Collaborative, Danielle DuMerer, Department of Innovation and Technology, Angel Kittiyachavalit, Code for America, Jesse Bounds, Code for America.
March 7, 2012 marked the grand opening of the Dearborn Technology Center at 2910 S. Dearborn. This program is administered in part by Smart Chicago under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program Public Computer Centers grant that we administer under a subaward from the City of Chicago.
March 7, 2012 marked the grand opening of the Dearborn Technology Center at 2910 S. Dearborn. This program is administered in part by Smart Chicago under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program Public Computer Centers grant that we administer under a subaward from the City of Chicago. This launch was made possible by the great work of the Chicago Housing Authority and their partner, TEC Services. Here’s a snip from the press release from the CHA: CHA CEO Charles Woodyard was on hand to commemorate the opening of the lab, equipped with 28 computers. John Tolva, the City of Chicago’s Chief Technology Officer, was also on hand to celebrate the occasion, along with officials from City of Chicago and The Chicago Community Trust. “This Technology Center will help link Dearborn Homes and its residents to the broader Chicago area, with its resources and employment opportunities,” Woodyard said. “Also, this center will be staffed by current or former CHA residents, who have spent months in training to be training coordinators and technical support staff.” The Dearborn Homes Technology Center is the first of seven technology centers that will open in separate CHA developments around the city over the next two years. The Altgeld Gardens Technology Center opened in 2010 and updated in 2011. Here’s a video showcasing the lab and explaining the features of the lab, the unique build-out, and the employment program: See more images from the opening here. Here’s a flyer about the programs available at Dearborn Homes:
Susan Crawford has an important piece in today’s New York Times: The New Digital Divide. Here’s a snip:
Over the last decade, cheap Web access over phone lines brought millions to the Internet. But in recent years the emergence of services like video-on-demand, online medicine and Internet classrooms have redefined the state of the art: they require reliable, truly high-speed connections, the kind available almost exclusively from the nation’s small number of very powerful cable companies. Such access means expensive contracts, which many Americans simply cannot afford.
While we still talk about “the” Internet, we increasingly have two separate access marketplaces: high-speed wired and second-class wireless. High-speed access is a superhighway for those who can afford it, while racial minorities and poorer and rural Americans must make do with a bike path.
Hundreds of people here in Chicago have worked in a sustained way on matters of the Digital Divide here in our city. Much progress has been made, including expanded programs at libraries and increased capacity at other public computer centers. Lots of applications are being built for both high-speed and lower-speed Internet connections.
She outlines good news on the connectivity front:
True, Americans of all stripes are adopting smartphones at breakneck speeds…
These numbers are likely to grow even starker as the 30 percent of Americans without any kind of Internet access come online. When they do, particularly if the next several years deliver subpar growth in personal income, they will probably go for the only option that is at all within their reach: wireless smartphones. A wired high-speed Internet plan might cost $100 a month; a smartphone plan might cost half that, often with a free or heavily discounted phone thrown in.
But highlights an underlying problem:
The problem is that smartphone access is not a substitute for wired. The vast majority of jobs require online applications, but it is hard to type up a résumé on a hand-held device; it is hard to get a college degree from a remote location using wireless. Few people would start a business using only a wireless connection.
As the market progresses, and technology advances, the original way we conceived of the “divide” morphs into something more sophisticated. Smart Chicago is working toward a day when reliable, high-speed access— and the transformative power of the applications that run on those networks— is everywhere.
Smart Chicago is proud to help fund the City of Chicago’s Code for America project, which will allow the City to conform with the Open311 standard and help citizens and government officials collaborate to solve problems and make the city better. Here’s a snip from the project page on Code for America:
Chicago was an early adopter of 311 — a system that connects residents directly with the local government for non-emergency needs — and now it is a popular method for citizen requests for government services in the city. Their system, however, is phone-based and so closed to the wide range of digital mediums people use to communicate. There’s tremendous opportunity to leverage web-based technology to redefine and renovate 311 in Chicago.
Here’s what Mayor Rahm Emanuel had to say when the project was announced:
“The City of Chicago is breaking ground every day, increasing efficiency and delivering services in innovative ways,” said Mayor Emanuel. “As I said during my campaign, ‘Open311’ is long overdue and something we should pursue. Through this important project, Code for America will help modernize the way service requests are received, executed and tracked, and better serve Chicagoans.”
The project begins in February 2012– stay tuned for more updates on the fellows and how you can get involved in funding, coding, and app development.
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