Month: February 2015

Robert Friedman, Kyla Williams and the Hive Network at the Next OpenGov Hack Night!

Christopher Whitaker

hive_logo_chicago-e1400880053780At this week’s Chicago OpenGov Hack Night, Robert Friedman and Kyla Williams spoke about the Hive Learning Network and the collaborative projects that we’re launching with the Hive Learning Network.

Robert Friedman started the presentation off my talking about what the HIVE learning network is.

Over the last five years, Hive Chicago has emerged as a thriving network of 57 local member organizations across the city of Chicago – joined by dozens of local, national and international collaborating partners – to motivate, inspire and support Connected Learning experiences for thousands of young people who go to the museums, nonprofits, and cultural institutions that make up the network. Open Gov Hack night attendees will recognize Blue 1647, Civic Artworks, and Open Books— some of the members of Hive.

Connected Learning is an educational approach designed to make learning relevant to all populations, to real life and real work, and to the realities of the digital age, where the demand for learning never stops.

Friedman mentioned six moonshots that the Hive Chicago is currently aiming for. These include: Making connections between the Hive and CPS parents, youth engagement, building onramps to connected learning, transportation and a think tank.

Our Director of Operations Kyla Williams also presented and talked about some of our work, including Time to Tech, #CivicSummer, and the Hive Mapping Cooperative, and also how the civic tech community can get involved in the network.​

You can get more information about the Hive Network here.

Cook County Data Published Over the Last Year

Josh Kalov

In our work with Cook County so far we have posted or helped post 15 datasets to Cook County’s Open Data Portal. These datasets include:

  • Comptroller – Annual Salaries – 2014 – August 28
  • ccgisdata – Address Point Chicago
  • Cook County Check Register
  • Medical Examiner – Burial Locations
  • Cook County Clerk – Tax Agency Rates
  • Cook County Clerk – Tax code Rates
  • Cook County Clerk – Tax codes, agencies, and rates
  • Cook County Recorder – Foreclosures, Mortgages, and Quit Claim Deeds – 2013 through August 1, 2014
  • Cook County Recorder – Foreclosures – 2013 through August 1, 2014
  • Cook County Recorder – Mortgages – 2013 through August 1, 2014
  • Cook County Recorder – Quit Claim Deeds – 2013 through August 1, 2014
  • Early Voting & Grace Period Registration and Voting – 2014 November 4 Gubernatorial Election
  • Cook County Clerk – Polling Place Locations – 2014 November 4 Gubernatorial Election
  • Budget – Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Executive Recommendation – Summary By Object Classification
  • Medical Examiner Indigent Cremations‘

More to come!

Code and Cupcakes seeking partners for their scholarship program

Christopher Whitaker

Code and CupcakesCode and Cupcakes is a beginning coding workshop for mothers and daughters.

In their workshops, start learning the basics of web development with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They provide laptops for each mother/daughter pair to work with, wireless internet connection, guided instruction, a team of teaching assistants and, of course, cupcakes (including vegan and gluten-free, plus beverages).

The workshops are run by Jen Myers who founded Code and Cupcakes in late 2014. Myers also teaches teaches and advises the Chicago Girl Developer It chapter.

One of the goals of Code and Cupcakes is to ensure that everyone to be able to participate in the workshops. Currently, Code and Cupcakes charges $35 for each mother/daughter pair, but they offer a number of scholarships that include a mother/daughter pair ticket plus two single-day city transit passes. Code and Cupcakes is currently looking for partners to help spread the word about the scholarships.

If your organization is interested in spreading the word, feel free to reach out to the group by emailing [email protected].  If you’re interested in getting involved, Code and Cupcakes are always looking for volunteers as well!

Join mRelief at Chicago’s #CodeAcross Food Stamp Hackathon

Christopher Whitaker

CodeAcross2015_Postcard

On February 20th, the mRelief team will be hosting a Food Stamp Hackathon as part of Code for America’s Code Across event.

mRelief.com empowers Chicagoans with a tool to access the welfare system in unprecedented ways by determining food stamp eligibility through text messaging and web tools which direct people to their next step in the application.

Sponsored by Microsoft and in partnership with the Harris Food Policy Advocacy Group, Code for America, and Women of Code, mRelief’s hackathon invites thought leaders in policy and computer programming to expand current eligibility screening for food stamps in Illinois. The event will focus on policy rules that impact overall eligibility, accessibility for students and applicants of varying types of citizenship, and documents that people need for food stamp eligibility.

As part of Code for America’s national Code Across event, mRelief has also set up a national repository for food stamp hackers across the country to view code for their web and SMS tools and submit the code for their states so that mRelief can sustain the work beyond the weekend. CodeAcross is a weekend of civic hacking events hosted by nodes of the Code for America network around the world. It is timed to coincide with both the last weekend of the Code for America Fellows residency and International Open Data Day. The goal of CodeAcross is to activate the Code for America network and inspire residents everywhere to get actively involved in their community.

The local event and mRelief’s national challenge on Github was organized by the all-women software development team at mRelief. mRelief’s tools simplifies the social service qualifying process with for food stamps and many other immediate needs. Illinois residents can check to see if they’re eligible for a variety of healthcare, rental assistance, cash assistance, transportation, and child welfare related programs.

Full details of the event can be found here.

Follow, the team on twitter at @mrelief_form

Attend the local event at: bit.ly/chifoodstamps

Sign up for the national event at: bit.ly/foodstampsusa

Next at the OpenGov Chicago Meetup: Local School Councils

Christopher Whitaker

opengovchicagoAt the next OpenGov Chicago Meetup, we’re continuing our new series that focuses on learning about and helping grassroots groups that interact with official government functions.

Next up is Local School Councils of the Chicago Public Schools. There are hundreds of LSCs covering the entire city, and they are populated by regular Chicago residents who care about their neighborhoods (including our very own Josh Kalov). We will hear from people who run these councils, find out what kind of data and technology they use, and figure out we can help.

The next meetup will take place at the Chicago Community Trust on March 5th at 6:00pm.

 

 

Examples of Cook County Data in Use

Josh Kalov

Here are some recent examples of Cook County Open Data in use:

  • LargeLots used Cook County parcel data to make it easier for people to see available city lots. This was one of the most successful tech-focused projects for the City in 2014, and the parcel data was essential to the interface.
  • The Chicago Sun-Times used the parcel data in a story about parking lots near the United Center
  • The Better Government Association uses salary data to make their popular lookup tool more accurate and up-to-date

If you are using Cook County Open Data, let us know!