Month: October 2017

IoT Council Series: How will IoT Impact your Life?

Sonja Marziano

Smart Chicago and City Digital invite you to join us at the next IoT Council Series event: How will IoT impact your life? This event will explore how the Internet of Things (IoT) can impact our personal and professional lives while sharing examples of IoT in homes, healthcare, and our cities. Everyone is invited and no knowledge of IoT is required to participate in this event. This will be an opportunity to learn more about current IoT applications and ask questions about the impact to you or your communities.

Event: IoT Council Series: How Will IoT Impact Your Life?
 Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2017 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM
 Location: UI LABS, 1415 N Cherry Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
 Free parking! Accessible via CTA Red Line, Blue Line, and buses (#70, #132 and #8)

RSVP here:  https://www.illinoistech.org/events/iot-council-series-what-is-iot-how-will-it-impact-your-life
 Questions related to registration or the event? Email

UI Labs Building with Chicago skyline in background

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes a vast network of connected devices–appliances, buildings, vehicles, and more– that contain sensors and are able to connect to the internet. Examples of IoT include wearable fitness trackers, devices that regulate temperature in homes, and Chicago’s  Array of Things sensors which collect data on the city’s environment and activity for research and public use.

A panel of speakers will discuss these different IoT applications:

  • Danielle DuMerer, Chief Information Officer of the City of Chicago who will share connected government solutions.
  • Chad Curry, Managing Director of CRT Labs– a research group to track emerging technologies that will affect real estate.
  • Gary Conkright, CEO of PhysIQ– a company that takes data from wearable and implantable devices to learn more about a person’s health.
  • Moderated by Steven Philpott, Co-founder of Colony 5

The event will be hosted at UI LABS, which is our new home, an innovation accelerator that connects partners from university, industry, startups, government, and community groups to address problems in order to advance manufacturing and create smart city infrastructure.

At Smart Chicago, we value opportunities where we can engage people from different sectors and perspectives to learn about and discuss our technology ecosystem. As our world becomes more connected, we need to ensure that people are included in the conversations that will help shape the technology devices and systems being created.

Register here to join us on November 7!

 

About the IoT Council
The Internet of Things Council’s mission is to drive advancement of IoT technology, policy and industry, establishing Chicago and the Midwest as an epicenter of IoT.

Denise Linn Riedl Named Benton Fellow

Kyla Williams

This week, Smart Chicago’s Denise Linn Riedl was announced as a new Benton Fellow. Benton Fellows are expert researchers, writers, and practitioners selected to speak and write about technology, communications systems, and the public interest. With a background in policy and a portfolio of work at the intersection of civic engagement, equity, and emerging technology, Denise is primed to take on this role!

Adrianne Furniss, Executive Director of the Benton Foundation wrote a blog post introducing Denise and Jon Sallet as the new Benton Fellows:

Benton believes that we can improve everyone’s life, if we can connect and engage them in addressing our common problems. Denise and Jon will help ensure that more people will participate in the network revolution that is transforming society – and that traditional American values like access, diversity, and equity are upheld in the Digital Age.

Congratulations, Denise! We’re looking forward to seeing what you do!

 

 

Kyla Williams Co-Presents Today at Philanthropy Ohio’s Annual Conference

Kyla Williams

Today, Leon Wilson, CIO of the Cleveland Foundation, and I will co-present at the Philanthropy Ohio’s annual conference with a theme this year of “Philanthropy Forward” and a concentrated discussion on Digital Civic Engagement & Community-Centered Design. Philanthropy Forward ’17 is set to inform practices, strategies and goals and connect peers in the field of philanthropy. The conference will also focus on the future of philanthropy with insight into the current state of the sector – fueled by recent research – addressing transitions, change and the leadership pipeline. With several networking and roundtable discussions, attendees will discover how to shift failures to successes, effectively fund advocacy and civic engagement and hear from  exceptional leaders across the state and country.

Leon and I also presented in April 2017 at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference “Leading Together” as part of a panel discussion with: Aaron Deacon, Managing Director, Kansas City Digital Drive; Elizabeth Reynoso, Assistant Director of Public Sector Innovation, Living Cities; and Lilly Weinberg, Program Director/Community Foundations, John S. & James L. Knight Foundation on “Supporting Civic Engagement through Technology and Community-Centered Design”. After finishing that presentation we decided more collaborative sharing between cities was necessary and lead to this opportunity at Philanthropy Ohio.

Community building in the digital era requires providing a space for the public sector and local communities to interact. Building solutions with people – not just for them – by using community-centered design can have profound social impact. This has been central to Smart Chicago’s work and has lead to the building of processes, products, services, and other lightweight tech solutions that have been helpful.

Our presentation today has the learning objectives:

  • To introduce different models developed in communities to address civic engagement digitally
  • To encourage the consideration of embedding support for digital civic engagement into existing grantmaking & advancement efforts

You can follow the happenings of the conference on Twitter @PhilanthropyOH and @SmartChgoKyla or by using the hashtag #PhilFWD17.