This week’s OpenGovHack Night was all about bike share data as Divvy released the trip data and launched the Divvy Data Challenge.
Chi Hack Night
Chi Hack Night t is Chicago’s weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic tech. Smart Chicago livestreams this event and writes up blog posts about the presentations on a regular basis.
OpenGov Hack Night: @ChicagoCDO unveils new OpenData Report
Tom Schenk Jr, Director of Analytics at the City of Chicago, unveiled the City of Chicago’s 2013 Open Data Report.
The Open Data Report overviews the Open Data Executive Order, initiatives accomplished during 2013 such as the launch of the Chicago Data Dictionary, the progress of Chicago’s data portal, and what to expect in 2014.
You can read the report here on the City of Chicago’s website.
Hack Night Live: Divvy Data II
Following up on the successful Divvy Data hack night last summer, Steven Vance and other developers will share what they have created to analyze station locations, track rides, and use hardware to know bike/station availability.
Photo courtesy of Steve Vance
Elliot Greenberger from Divvy will also be making a special announcement.
We’ll be live streaming the event here on this very blog! We’ll start our broadcast at about 6:15pm CST. Meeting notes will be posted here.
Fundrise and the Handbuilt City at OpenGov Hack Night
Last week, Nat Zorach of the Handbuilt City came to hack night to talk about their efforts to purchase buildings using crowdfunding.
Hack Night Live: The Handbuilt City
Nat Zorach from The Handbuilt City will discuss how they use Fundrise to spur the development of affordable housing in Gary, IN and St Louis, MO..
Livestream starts on this very blog post at 6:15
Get Covered Illinois at OpenGov Hack Night
At the last Chicago OpenGov Hack Night, Charles Watkins from Get Covered Illinois talked about the Affordable Care Act and its implementation here in Illinois.
Get Covered Illinois is an effort by the State of Illinois to make sure that all residents in Illinois get health insurance. Here’s Charles Watkins explaining the effort.
The Affordable Healthcare Act brings about several benefits that weren’t available before including a restricting insurance companies from denying claims based on pre-existing conditions, allowing residents to remain on their parents insurance until age 26, and more coverage for preventative services. Watkins explains the benefits of the ACA below:
There are a number of websites that people can use to get information about the Affordable Healthcare Act and get pre-screened for benefits. Those sites are:
- GetCovered Illinois: Which helps to inform Illinois residents about the new healthcare law.
- Abe.Illinois.Gov: Which enables residents to get prescreened for benefits. This helps residents determine if they should apply for medicare, SNAP (food stamps), cash assistance, or medical assistance before trying to go to the healthcare.gov website.
- Healthcare.gov: Which is where residents can search for healthcare coverage. In Illinois, the marketplace is run in partnership with the State of Illinois. There are currently eight insurance companies that are on the marketplace in Illinois.
Charles explains the details of each site below.
After presenting Charles also answered questions from the civic innovation community.
You can find out more about Illinois’ efforts to implement the ACA by going to GetCovered Illinois.
