Year: 2013

Introducing the CUT Group: Get paid to test civic apps

Smart Chicago

Today we’re excited to launch the Civic User Testing Group, a set of regular Chicago residents who get paid to test out civic apps.

If you live in Chicago, sign up today and get started.

  • Fill out a CUT Group profile and sign up to be a tester of civic apps, and we’ll send you a $5 VISA gift card
  • If and when you are chosen to test a civic app, you get paid a $20 VISA gift card and bus fare

Here’s how we explain the program:

There is a large and growing community of “civic hackers” in Chicago — technology developers who make websites, mobile apps, and other tools that often have specific use in Chicago. The goal is to make software that helps make lives better in the city.

The problem is that lots of civic apps get attention among a smallish group of other developers and people interested in the world of open data, but do not get wide acceptance by the people they were made for — regular residents of the city of Chicago.

You are going to change all that!

We need people from all over the city, using all sorts of devices, browsers and operating systems.

One of the reasons I’m excited about in this project is it is the first launch with my colleague Chris Gansen, who is working with us as a program manager. He last served as an engineer for Obama for America, where he was responsible for their Dashboard tool, which helped get hundreds of thousands of people involved in the election process. We’re privileged to have him focused on our work here in Chicago.

I recently wrote a post, Turning Civic Hacking Into Civic Innovation, where I laid out the immense assets that are available in this city to support this work, and identified a gap:

What’s currently missing? The people.

All of this is great. Two important components for civic innovation, government and developers, are here in force in Chicago. But dozens of developers looking at each other in conference rooms over pizza is never going to lead to making lives better in Chicago without the active involvement of real residents expressing real needs and advocating for software that makes sense to them. The good thing is that Chicago has assets in this area as well.

We think this is a great step in establishing sustained, meaningful collaboration with residents around the data and technology. CUT Group is a lightweight way to get people involved. The hope is once everyone is involved in this world, we’ll find new ways to innovate that we can’t possibly conceive at this time.

You are the data. The data is you.

Smart Chicago

When I was on the cross-country team at Gordon Technical High School, we had a running joke-slash-motivational line. After we warmed up, stretched, and started to get ready for the afternoon’s workout, someone would say, “where is the line?”. What they meant was, “where are we going to start running from?” More specifically, “where will we be when we know to stop running?”

The answer would come from someone else (it was a different person every day who asked and answered, but it was never planned). The answer was always the same: “You are the line. The line is you”.

Then we would all line up next to and behind the person who asked where the line was. Someone would set their watch, say “go”, and we’d start the run.

Running Under the Overpass

People often ask me if civic data, like the stuff available at data.cityofchicago.org is accurate. Tony Sarabia asked me this recently on his Morning Show. It’s a good question, especially from good journalist, because you should know your source. But the answer is that civic data is a messy manifestation of the agony and the ecstasy of the human condition: people crying out for help after being victims of crime, people submitting a service request because the lights are out on their block, someone pulling a building permit to turn a porch into a baby’s room.

When I look at PlowTracker or ClearStreets, I don’t see the fun icons or the crisp lines. I see hundreds of city workers who get into trucks and spread salt in dangerous conditions. That’s not just data. That’s human beings— our neighbors— doing their jobs; feeding their children. We can download raw data sets, send them through hoops and massage tunnels, load them on our own servers, and it’s not really ours.

Civic data is a civic treasure. Something that represents all of us. We talk a lot in government, philanthropy, and communications about “engagement”. There is nothing more engaging than a line in a spreadsheet that has us in it.

You are the line. The line is you.

Updates on Civic Innovation

Smart Chicago

I’m heading over to the Open Gov Hack Night, a group of passionate folks working at the intersection of open government, cities, and technology. Smart Chicago is a steady sponsor of these popular nights, providing the space for them at 1871, based on our seats there. Here’s some updates that I am going to share, and thought I would put them here for link-love safekeeping:

$15,000 in prize money for a state-wide winner of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge 

We are focusing on four areas of our state (Rockford, Champaign, Belleville, and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association) for this program. We have $75,000 in total prize money, and will award $15,000 to developers creating specific apps that meets that needs of each of the communities. The remaining $15,000 will be awarded by the Governor in a state-wide prize. Apps must use state-wide data from data.illinois.gov. Complete details coming on January 30.

New data journalism radio series on WBEZ

I participated in a segment on the Morning Shift show with Tony Sarabia along with my Civic Innovation in Chicago colleagues Tim Akimoff and Matt Green. Listen for more data stories on that show. The entire Civic Innovation in Chicago project is made possible by a Community Information Grant from the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. Additional support is provided by the MacArthur Foundation.

Hidden Civic Hacker

Last week I was in Rockford for the Illinois Open Technology Challenge and heard an amazing story of civic hacking going back to 1979. I wrote it up here.

Moar projects

I added some of my personal projects to the bottom of this spreadsheet of civic hacking projects. Add yours!

Open fare system?

The CTA is launching an “open fare initiative“. I think that means anyone can create a fare payment system that allows people to ride the train. Let’s do this!

Kicking off Civic Innovation in Chicago on WBEZ’s Morning Shift

Christopher Whitaker

On Wednesday, Smart Chicago Executive Director Dan O’Neil joined WBEZ’s Matthew Green and Tim Akimoff to talk about data journalism. Here’s the broadcast, which started with an amazing in-studio song by Dolly Varden:

Data journalism is the art and science of finding truth through big data produced by the day to day operations of governments and other large entities, then taking that day and using it to tell a story.  Data journalism also involves creating visualizations with data such as WBEZ’s gang map.

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is partnering with WBEZ to not only take part in data journalism, but also to raise awareness of the impact data has on our daily lives.

This will be done through WBEZ’s new data blog Day X Datum as well as by Smart Chicago’s efforts to support civic apps such as Chicago’s flu shot app and Second City Zoning.

Through this effort, Smart Chicago and WBEZ hope to connect the community to data and civic hacking efforts. Smart Chicago encourages those interested in learning how to use data to tell stories and solve civic problems are encouraged to contact the Smart Chicago Collaborative.