Month: April 2016

Mayor Emanuel Launches Connect Chicago Initiative to Help Close the Digital Divide in Chicago

Smart Chicago
Brenna Berman Connect Chicago

Brenna Berman speaks at the launch of Connect Chicago.

Today we launched Connect Chicago, our initiative to make Chicago the most skilled and connected digital city in America. Following is a roundup of the day.

Here’s the compete text of a press release from Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 

MAYOR EMANUEL LAUNCHES CONNECT CHICAGO INITIATIVE TO HELP CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN CHICAGO

Initiative Will Make Digital Skills Training Available at Nearly All Chicago Public Libraries

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a coalition of public and private partners today launched Connect Chicago — a civic leadership initiative to make Chicago the most skilled and connected digital city in America. Connect Chicago will expand digital skills training throughout the city, and to nearly all Chicago Public Library locations.

“By teaching digital skills, we give Chicago a stronger and more dynamic economy,” Mayor Emanuel said. “Connect Chicago will allow us to expand digital skills training throughout the city and benefit residents of all ages in every neighborhood.”

Connect Chicago will expand digital access and training resources across the city by expanding evidence-based programs in partnership with trusted institutions with a history of serving low-income Chicagoans. Initial investments announced today include the citywide expansion the Chicago Public Library’s CyberNavigator program, which provides computer tutors who help provide access to information resources for adults and youth. The expansion will take CyberNavigators from 48 public library branches to nearly all of the 80 branches across the city, creating an additional 350-400 new training hours per week across Chicago.

“The Library has made it a priority to provide critical tools and resources for adults to learn digital skills,” said Chicago Public Libraries Commissioner Brian Bannon. “This exciting collaborative approach will allow CPL to serve as an access point to digital skills in every neighborhood, through our 80 locations across the city.”

Connect Chicago will also fund the integration of digital skills training into Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Chicago Financial Opportunity Centers’ programming. Under this investment, LISC Chicago projects to train 1,000 more residents in digital skills during 2016 – 50 percent more than their current capacity. In 2011, LISC Chicago found that patrons who participated in digital skill training alongside other support services at financial opportunity centers were 50 percent more likely to get a job than those that didn’t.

Connect Chicago is the next chapter in Chicago’s commitment to digital access and skills. It is rooted in two recent citywide plans created under Mayor Emanuel’s leadership: the City of Chicago Tech Plan as well as World Business Chicago’s Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs.
“Through investments in coordination, programs, and innovation, we believe Connect Chicago will expand and sustain a thriving digital ecosystem that unleashes Chicago’s economic potential and improves the lives of its residents,” said Jeff Malehorn, President and CEO of World Business Chicago.

Connect Chicago brings together the public and private sectors to focus on neighborhood economic development. Private sector partners include Cisco, Clarity Partners, Comcast, Get IN Chicago, Gogo, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility Foundation, The Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute, and Sprint. Over the next three years, Connect Chicago aims to raise at least $10 million to strengthen Chicago’s digital foundations and expand this network of programming.

“By bringing these partners together, we are able to do something unique for Chicago,” said Dan X. O’Neil, executive director, Smart Chicago Collaborative. “It allows an unprecedented alignment and coordination of the city’s technology assets.”

“Internet access is important, because it helps kids succeed in school and families participate more fully in their communities and in the economy,” said Matthew Summy, Comcast’s regional vice president of External and Government Affairs. “Comcast is deeply committed to closing the digital divide and to that end in 2011 launched the nation’s largest broadband adoption program for low-income families, Internet Essentials. Since then, nearly 35,000 Chicago families – or about 140,000 individuals – have gained access to the Internet at home through the program.”

“Connect Chicago is a shining example of Chicago’s commitment to digital access and skills,” said Shelley Stern Grach, Director of Technology and Civic Engagement at Microsoft. “We’re proud to be a founding supporter of this innovative initiative to expand 21st century resources across our city.”

For more information on Connect Chicago, visit connectchicago.org.

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The citywide expansion of CyberNavigators through Connect Chicago builds on the support of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, which has supported the CyberNavigator Program since 1998. There is high demand for CyberNavigator assistance across the city. The expansion will take CyberNavigators from 48 public library branches to over 75 branches, creating an additional 350-400 new training hours per week across Chicago.

Here’s a complete set of royalty-free photos to use in relation to the launch.

Here are posters we used to show the top-level goals, our current investments, and other facts about the program:

Here’s some of the new stories written about the launch:

Emanuel touts plan to expand cyber use in city

By Marwa Eltagouri, Chicago Tribune
 In 2013, broadband adoption on home computers and devices was lowest in neighborhoods such as West Garfield Park, Burnside and Brighton Park, as well as other African-American and Latino neighborhoods where poverty rates are high, according to the study. While the majority of people without broadband still connect to the Internet with their smartphones or public computers, the research showed they’re limited in their Internet use and are far less likely to use online courses or access online job applications.

 

City Launches Connect Chicago Initiative To Expand Digital Skills Training

By Mike Krauser
“It’s not dependent on your zip code, it’s not dependent on your neighborhood, it’s not dependent on your race or income,” Emanuel said. “Everybody will have the access to be part of the 21st century in the sense of what technology is and be conversant.”

Code for Miami is a Knight Cities Challenge winner for CUTGroup

Sonja Marziano

Today, Code for Miami, a Code for America brigade, was announced as a Knight Cities Challenge winner for their Miami Civic User Testing Group. The goal of the Miami Civic User Testing Group is “Ensuring that people building local government technology use real-world feedback throughout the development process by creating a user testing group that will identify user experience issues more quickly, while making websites and apps more accessible.”

As a flagship Smart Chicago program, the Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup) has helped to establish sustained, meaningful collaboration with residents around data and technology. Code for Miami plans to implement the CUTGroup processes and methodologies laid out in our documentation, and we will be working with Code for Miami to help with the process of building a CUTGroup through the CUTGroup Collective.

We recently launched the CUTGroup Collective as a way to convene organizations and institutions to help establish new CUTGroups in other cities and create a new community to share and learn from one another. Smart Chicago’s CUTGroup and CUTGroup Collective have also been supported by the Knight Foundation through the Community Information Challenge Grant that was awarded last year to “continue to design, build and demonstrate the power of digital tools to the community and empower residents to use news and information to improve their quality of life.”

We look forward to work with and learning lessons from Code for Miami’s experience of building a CUTGroup and helping other cities also learn from those experiences.

Congratulations to the Code for Miami team – Rebekah Monson, Ernie Hsiung, and Cristina Solana!

Smart Chicago at the After School Matters and Borderbend Arts & Tech Fair

Denise Linn

On April 9th, Smart Chicago participated in the After School Matters & Borderbend Arts & Tech Fair at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center.

We met the youth, enjoyed performances from programs like Chicago Kaleidoscopes & Spoken Word Academy of Chicago, and shared information from our Connect Chicago network of programs.

Here are just some arts & tech learning spaces for youth interested in summer STEAM experiences:

YOUmedia at Chicago Public Library Branches

YOUmedia is a library and studio space at Chicago Public Library branches designed specifically for teens. You can hang out, mess around and geek out on projects to create your own music, video, 2D and 3D design, photos and podcasts with help from skilled mentors. YOUmedia equipment is available for free with your valid Chicago Public Library card.

Little Black Pearl

Location: 1060 East 47th Street Chicago, Illinois 60653. Little Black Pearl (LBP) is a nonprofit serving youth in the Kenwood/Oakland, Woodlawn, and Bronzeville neighborhoods. Their Teen Tech Center is a space that enables teens from Chicago to gain access to technological tools, resources and opportunities in music, multi-media, video, graphics, digital photography, engineering and animation.

Street-Level Youth Media

Location: 1637 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622. Street-Level offers free media arts training to youth & young adults from ages 13 to 24. Experienced teachers, artists, and mentors teach year-round workshops at their multimedia center.

Adler Planetarium STEM Teen Programs

Location: 1300 S Lake Shore Dr. Chicago, IL 60605. The Adler’s Teen Programs focus on providing technical and professional skills, mentorship, and a welcoming learning environment for Chicago high school students of all backgrounds, interests, and abilities. They introduce you to new skills like web development, game development, robotics and more.

This list is just the beginning. There are over 250 locations in Chicago where you can access technology, training, & Wi-Fi.

Thank you to all the youth from the Arts & Tech Fair that shared their talents!

Big Data & the Public Good: A Conversation about Array of Things at SAIC

Denise Linn

On April 4th, Illinois Humanities hosted “Big Data & the Public Good” at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The event overviewed the Array of Things urban sensing project and facilitated a conversation on the role of technology in contemporary society. Smart Chicago’s Executive Director Dan O’Neil moderated the event. The featured presenters were Douglas Pancoast and Marissa Lee Benedict.

This program was organized by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was supported in part by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. On the event website, the event’s framing questions on big data, technology, and democracy were listed: 

What is the relationship between information technology, urban space, and the public good in the age of big data? Where do “smart cities” initiatives like the Array of Things – which doesn’t collect any information about individuals – fit into contemporary conversations about privacy and surveillance? How can the arts and humanities help our society think through these issues?

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Douglas Pancoast, an Associate Professor of Interior Architecture and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, designed the Array of Things sensor enclosures along with Satya Mark Basu. Pancoast gave background on the project and shared the evolving iterations of the design:

Pancoast overviewed the functionality of the Array of Things nodes — that they will measure air quality, standing water, noise pollution, wind, light, pedestrian traffic, and other environmental factors. Wired Magazine called Array of Things a “Fitbit for the City.”

The second speaker, Marissa Lee Benedict, gave an artist’s perspective on Array of Things. Benedict is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Sculpture and Fiber & Material Studies, and works as the Program Coordinator for the Arts, Science & Culture Initiative at the University of Chicago. As an artist, Benedict can approach technology with a different perspective — she can see the art in data and fiber-optic cables. She can also assist with activist gestures in a way other people working with technology cannot.

What is the value of open data from urban sensors?

Several themes arose from the audience questions at the event. The first theme centered on the expected benefits of Array of Things and the data it would produce.

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Pancoast pointed out that society has always placed value in creating and investing in archived, searchable collections of information. Organizing and sharing the data produced from an urban sensing project arguably has the same societal value of building and filling a library with books.

Still, communicating the value of collecting data through urban sensors also means articulating compelling, relevant use cases of the data. The value of open data from this smart city infrastructure is less clear unless there are specific examples of how data can be turned into local action:

Pancoast shared several problems that could be identified and illuminated by Array of Things data. Some examples:

  • Understanding how exhaust activity at O’Hare impacts surrounding property values
  • Understanding how noise pollution in certain areas of the city should impact zoning
  • Understanding the source of standing water

One specific case highlighted was Albany Park. Albany Park has a high incidences of flooding. If we could watch it, monitor where the water goes, how long it takes to evaporate and see how it correlates to other environmental factors, the problem can be better defined.

Engagement & Participation

Of course, problem identification isn’t enough to catalyze change. Communities have to be involved and empowered to act on the new information. In this light, another main theme from the event was resident engagement: what type of engagement is needed, who to engage with, and how to do it well. Specifically, there was an interest in how Chicagoans might broadly engage with the Array of Things project outside of targeted efforts in schools and youth programs. At Smart Chicago, we are committed to this broad engagement with urban sensing and the Internet of Things.

Benedict shared the following thought-provoking questions with the audience:

questions AT

Dan O’Neil shared some of the best practices that Smart Chicago has gleaned: do engagement work as openly as possibly, document your process and planning, invite everyone, and “fetishize the outputs.” One recent example of model of engagement is Smart Chicago’s work with the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force Community Forums.

This event facilitated an interesting conversation about data, participation, and urban sensors — a conversation that needs to be continued openly, interactively, and across different venues in Chicago. Smart Chicago is committed to broad community engagement on the Array of Things project. To learn more about this work, visit our project page.

CUTGroup Collective & The Opportunity Project

Sonja Marziano

Screen Shot 2016-03-31 at 3.52.32 PMSmart Chicago will be partnering with CUTGroup Collective members to help build CUTGroups in other cities and then conduct UX testing on websites and tools that use data that is part of the White House’s Opportunity Project initiative. “The Opportunity Project expands access to opportunity for all Americans by putting data and digital tools in the hands of families, communities, and local leaders, to help them navigate information about the resources they need to thrive.”

Our role is to help organize these CUTGroup events around National Day of Civic Hacking, a national event that “brings together urbanists, civic hackers, government staff, developers, designers, community organizations and anyone with the passion to make their city better.” Smart Chicago has hosted National Day of Civic Hacking events in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and has been a leader in the national planning.

This year, Smart Chicago is interested in creating lasting impact by focusing our time, efforts and resources on direct engagement with residents around technology through the CUTGroup model. All of this work will happen through the CUTGroup Collective, our effort to convene and strengthen organizations and institutions in cities to help establish new CUTGroups, and create a new community to share and learn from one another.

We will team up with developers who have built projects using opportunity data and match them with cities that are part of the CUTGroup Collective. We will then work together to design and implement CUTGroup testing in June as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking.

We are excited to do this work, and look forward to creating better technology for residents on a national level. If you are interested in the CUTGroup model and being part of the CUTGroup Collective, please let us know by filling out this form.

If you have worked on an website or tool that uses opportunity data, and want to participate in CUTGroup testing, please fill out this form.

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San Francisco’s Public Voice Project & the CUTGroup Collective

Sonja Marziano

San Francisco's The Public Voice: City Service Design CenterThe City & County of San Francisco recently submitted a proposal in the Knight News Challenge: How might libraries serve 21st century information needs? for The Public Voice: City Service Design Center. The goal is to “make San Francisco Public Library a forum for the collaborative design of government digital services through a public user testing program.”

This is an impressive project that will create better tools and systems that serve residents by conducting usability testing and incorporating and responding to resident feedback.

Our Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup) work is cited as an inspiration and the City & County of San Francisco will implement the CUTGroup methodologies laid out in our documentation to replicate similar success in San Francisco.

The Public Voice honors the CUTGroup’s pioneering model and builds on it with an explicit focus:

1) We focus on government services being redesigned as part of our citywide initiative to be “digital by default”. The Public Voice creates collaborative environments where public services are built “with, not for” the people of San Francisco.

2) We create structural relationships and feedback loops with agency digital product managers. Feedback and testing will be prioritized for products where feedback is highly actionable and impactful. Librarians assisting people in accessing government services in their day jobs are critical to this feedback loop.

3) We focus on accessibility for people with low digital literacy, non-native English speakers, and people with disabilities. We plan to implement the CUTGroup methodologies laid out in Smart Chicago’s documentation to replicate similar success in San Francisco.

The CUTGroup is a flagship Smart Chicago program to establish sustained, meaningful collaboration with residents around data and technology. We recently launched the CUTGroup Collective as a way to convene organizations and institutions to help establish new CUTGroups in other cities, and create a new community to share and learn from one another. The City & County of San Francisco are members of this network and are committed to sharing lessons learned from implementing CUTGroup processes in San Francisco with the entire CUTGroup Collective. We see immeasurable value from San Francisco participating in the CUTGroup Collective and communicating their lessons and insights to other cities.

Through the CUTGroup Collective, Smart Chicago is dedicated to helping the City & County of San Francisco implement best practices from the CUTGroup based on what we learned. In addition, we are excited to learn what The Public Voice project can teach us about building CUTGroup processes from within government and public libraries and see how that could help other cities implement similar models.