Month: February 2015

Cook County Land Bank Property Viewer

Josh Kalov

Recently the Cook County Land Bank launched a new online property viewer and search tool. The site includes property owned by the land bank and property that may be available to the land bank.

Initially you can search by parcel number, street address, or city or you can view all properties. The main view shows a map and a list of the properties. The property locations are color-coded by property classification such as “Residential Land” and “Residential Structure.” Searches can be filtered by location and building characteristics. The map can show additional layers such as recent foreclosures, tax sales, TIF districts, and floodplains.

Land Bank Inventory Main

You can click on a property to get to a property detail page with more information and pictures.
Cook County Land Bank Inventory Details

By creating an account it is possible to submit the pre-qualification application PDF.
Cook County Land Bank Application

The Cook County Land Bank worked with ePropertyPlus to develop the web application.

Smart Chicago and the Concept of “Patient Centered”

Smart Chicago 1 Comment

Health Data LiberationWe have a number of health programs here at Smart Chicago, all of which are run by my colleague, Kyla Williams. In working on these projects, I’ve come across a number of intriguing concepts, just like one would in any sub-speciality. Chief of these concepts, for me, is “patient-centered”.

To me, a phrase like this is a tell. Any time an industry, company, or organization starts talking about “user-driven”, “customer-focused”, or “patient-centered” strategies, it is an indication that they’ve not been driven, focused, or centered in that direction in the past.

I’ve spent the majority of my career in the world of developing Web sites. In that sub-specialty, the idea of being focused on users is pretty much all there is. If you don’t have users, if you’re not making something that appeals to them and serves their needs, you’ve got nothing.

I don’t have any particular insight into the healthcare industry, since I’ve never worked in it. I can tell you from personal experience as a consumer of healthcare and as a general observer of pop culture, however, that I’ve never felt that patients were at the center of the experience.

Patient portals seem designed to deliver as little information as possible and optimize for medical professionals. Exporting information to give to other caregivers is cumbersome. Integration with email is weak— you have to log in to the system to get even the most innocuous information, like the details of a visit you just scheduled over the phone.

In 2015, we are embarking on and expanding a number of initiatives designed to get us deeper into the patient-centered trend. Our CUTGroup methodology is a recognized as a leading way to gather and act on the feedback of regular residents. The Smart Health Centers model, where we help place trained health information specialists in clinics to assist patients in connecting to their own medical records and find reliable information about their own conditions, is deeply patient-centered. Our Health Data Liberation Meetup Group is at the conceptual forefront for patient control

We think we have a lot to offer, and we’re excited about the work to come.

 

Help Wanted: Administrative Assistant at Smart Chicago Collaborative

Smart Chicago

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is hiring an administrative assistant to help us support our work.

The Administrative Assistant will help us with coordinating schedules, requests for information, meetings, and events that surround our work. This may sound simple, but as a collaborative organization we work with a ton of consultants, partners, and funders to get everything done. Throughout the course of our work, we try to keep everything documented and are looking for additional help to do that.

We’re looking for somebody that  has at least two years of experience and great web, writing, and communication skills. As a technology outfit, our ideal candidate would be somebody who is interested in technology and not afraid to try out new tools.

More importantly, we’re looking for somebody who is community service oriented. Our work centers around using technology to create an impact in our communities and we’re looking for somebody who wants in the game.

Full details on the job posting can be found here!

Criteria: People First, Tech Second

Laurenellen McCann

What does it look like to build civic tech with, not for? What’s the difference between sentiment and action?

That’s the thrust of Experimental Modes in Civic Engagement for Civic Tech — a special initiative that I’m leading for Smart Chicago as part of their Community Information Deep Dive. The scope of this work is guided by the “civic” in “civic technology”, the idea that people need to be prioritized above production.

The project has three parts: (1) a scan of the field, identifying practitioners of needs-responsive, community-driven tech and the basic characteristics, best practices, and models that define their work, (2) a convening of practitioners at the Chicago Community Trust in April 2015, and (3) a book, documenting our investigation of the space and civic tech tactics and strategies that refocus the work on people.

Criteria

In order to inform the scan of the field, I developed a series of criteria for evaluating whether a project meets the standard of being needs-responsive and community-driven. To prioritize people and build with them is to:

  1. Start with people: Work with the real people and real communities you are part of, represent, and/or are trying to serve
  2. Cater to context: Leverage and operate with an informed understanding of the existing social infrastructure and sociopolitical contexts that affect your work
  3. Respond to need: Let expressed community ideas, needs, wants, and opportunities drive problem-identification and problem-solving
  4. Build for best fit: Develop solutions and tools that are the most useful to the community and most effectively support outcomes and meet needs
  5. Prove it: Demonstrate and document that community needs, ideas, skills, and other contributions are substantially integrated into — and drive — the lifecycle of the project 

Beyond direct application to the Experimental Modes initiative, my goal in creating these criteria was to define the leanest standard possible for translating the idea of “with” to a series of identifiable practices that can be used for further investigation, accountability, and guidance outside of this project.

Some of the principles defined above have been long mirrored in (and championed by!) the design community, but their expression has yet to become part of the primary approach to creating civic technology as commonly talked about today. Nor has there been much dialogue about what it means to do more than just design with a community, but to literally build and evaluate these civic tools together — to let community drive the whole process.

As we push this conversation — and active experimentation — forward, our next steps focus on sharing modes of existing community co-construction with high-value lessons and patternable best practices. We’re also organizing a convening of practitioners, so if your work/projects you know of meet the criteria above.

Co

Dig this inspiring stock image of collaboration? Learn more about it here.

PHOTOS: CUTGroup #14, Chicago Cityscape, Logan Square Public Library

Smart Chicago

Here’s a set of images of Sonja Marziano, Christopher Whitaker, and Josh Kalov conducting CUTGroup #14, which is focused on Chicago Cityscape, a site that tracks building permits, violations, and historic resources in all neighborhoods, community areas, and wards using open data.

Developer Steve Vance conducted a number of the tests, along with guest proctor Daniel Ronan.

Thirteen testers from all over the city showed up on a cold winter night, and we all learned a lot. Sonja is compiling the results— full report soon!

See a complete collection of photos from CUTGroup tests here.

Does your building not recycle? Report it here!

Christopher Whitaker

mybuildingdoesntThe Environmental Breakout Group at OpenGov Hack Night has been working on a site to report buildings that don’t recycle. Chicago’s ordinances require buildings with five or more rental units to provide recycling. However, the city doesn’t always enforce this law leading some landlords to not provide recycling.

Claire Micklin, Ben Wilhelm, and Alex Kahn put together to help residents report buildings that don’t recycle.

The team will be using the data to visualize reports of buildings that don’t recycle and provide a hub for residents seeking more comprehensive recycling services.  Already, the site has received 900 reports on 750 locations in the first week that it launched. (The site was getting hit so much that it was running into Google’s API limits – and so they started using Smart Chicago’s Google API account.)

Micklin first started the project after seeing so many of her neighbors blue bins filled up constantly because neighboring buildings weren’t providing recycling.

Micklin says she found working with the Environment Breakout to be really helpful for finding resources and coming up with ideas on how to do it. Scott Beslow, who helps lead the breakout group, helped put the bones together in terms of constructing the site and getting developers interested. The team used the OpenCity Apps Github repository to collaborate on the app.

The site was announced at last week’s OpenGov Hack Night to rave reviews and has appeared on WBEZ, the Mike Nowack Show, and DNAinfo. Here’s WBEZ talking to Micklin:

The group hopes to use the information to lobby for stronger enforcement of the recycling ordinance. The team will continue to work on the app during OpenGov Hack Night which happens every Tuesday at 6:00pm at the offices of Braintree.