1871

OpenGov Hack Night: Upcoming Events and Sustainable Data

Christopher WhitakerApril 29, 2013

There was no presentation at this week’s OpenGov Hack Night, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything going on.

Here are a few events that are coming up!

National Day of Civic Hacking: Save the date! On June 1st and 2nd, Chicago will be joining civic hackers across the country to Hack for Change! We’ll have three events.
- Immigration Hackathon at Cibola
- Youth Hackathon at Adler Planetarium
- Hack for Chicago at 1871
More information about these events will be released soon.
OpenStreetMap Hack Weekend: If you know your way around a compiler, feel comfortable with JSON and XML, or know the difference between an ellipsoid and a geoid, then the Hack Weekend is for you. We’re looking for those with technical know-how to help make a difference in OpenStreetMap’s core software by writing patches and new software to help make mapping faster and easier.
Safe Communities Hackathon at Google: The City of Chicago is partnering with Google to host a hackathon centered around community safety on May 11th.
Work for Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology – Make the awesome happen: The City of Chicago is hiring a new Managing Deputy Chief Information Officer to help run the city’s enterprise applications. The City of Chicago’s efforts in releasing data and leveraging technology have been the keystone to the entire civic innovation effort in Chicago. If you’ve got the chops, drop what you’re doing and apply now.

Datasets of the week: Energy Usage and alternative fuel locations

In honor of Earth Day, the City of Chicago released two new data sets.

The first is a new API that lets users see what the energy usage is throughout the city. This data set uses data aggregated by ComEd and People’s Gas to display energy uses by census track pairs. (For privacy concerns, the City doesn’t want to release data that can point out energy use for just one building. By having the data by census tract pairs, it protects privacy while still giving great information on the city’s energy usage.)

This data set also comes with an API. As with all new API’s released by the City, this API is well documented telling developers what all the fields are, what the error messages mean, and giving samples of code that use the API.

The other data set that was released is alternative fuel locations. This data set will be particularly important to companies that want to make electric cars more viable in the city.

Come join us next week at OpenGov Hack Night! Every Tuesday at 6:00pm inside 1871.

OpenGov Hack Night: 1 Year Anniversary

Christopher WhitakerApril 22, 2013

Happy Birthday OpenGov Hack Night!

This week was the one year anniversary of the Chicago OpenGov Hack Night.

The Year in Review (6:30)

Some quick stats on what’s gone on in the past year.

48 Hack Nights
7 Data Potlucks
98 Lou Malnati’s Pizzas
300 unique attendees from 15 cities
24 civic apps (just out of the hack nights)

Chicago’s OpenGov Hack Night has been around for a year!

Congrats guys!

The City of Chicago and the Broadband Technology opportunities Grant

Francesca Rodriquez and Danielle DuMerer gave a presentation on the city’s efforts to close the digital divide.

The City of Chicago was one of the few major cities to receive a Broadband Technology Opportunities Grant. This grant is used to fund a number of projects in Chicago aimed at growing broadband adoption in Chicago.

The City received $16 million in BTOP funds to help build out Public Computing Centers and run comprehensive programs in some of Chicago’s more disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition, the MacArthur Foundation provided matching funds. LISC Chicago and the Smart Chicago Collaborative partnered with the city to administer the programs.

You can find all the public computing centers that are funded by the grant on WeConnectChicago.org.

EveryoneOn campaign

Chicago’s done a lot of work to close the digital divide and continues to hammer away at the issue with the launch of the EveryoneOn campaign. EveryoneOn is a national program that aims to increase digital literacy and access to the high speed intenet. The program is being piloted in Chicago.

As part of the program, the city is partnering with Connect2Compete. Connect2Compete is a non-profit website where residents can search for affordable internet options near them. Residents simply enter their zip code and answer a few questions in order to see their options.

Previously, the City worked with Comcast to provide low-cost internet as part of the Internet Essentials initiative in 2011. The city has now expanded that option to include FreedomPop.

FreedomPop is a wireless router that uses the CLEAR 4G wireless network. (Smart Chicago is currently testing the devices across the city as part of the Civic User Testing Group.) With the FreedomPop routers, residents can get a gigabyte of free data each month. For $10/month, residents can increase that amount to 10GBs.

FreedomPop Routers

The city has made great strides to close the digital divide in the past two years. Here’s some examples of the work that’s gone on. (From the city’s website)

Establish free Wi-Fi at 28 public computer center sites and upgraded free Wi-Fi at 66 Chicago Public Library branches;
Provide over 180,000 hours of instructor-led technology training to 29,300 Chicagoans citywide;
Help at least 570 Chicagoans find jobs through 180,000 one-on-one CyberNavigator assistance sessions at the libraries;
Deliver technology training to over 1,000 small businesses;
Provide out-of-school digital media programming to 1,350 youth;
Establish the Connect Chicago network to bring together over 250 locations that offer free digital skills training throughout the City; and
Install over 1,400 computer stations at 170 public computer centers citywide, located in CHA facilities, CCC campuses, community centers, libraries and Veterans Resource Centers.

We’re excited to see what comes next.

Juan-Pablo Valez: Lessons on civic hacking (25:35)

Juan-Pablo Valez presented his thoughts on how we can get citizens involved in civic hacking.

Juan used a number of examples to help explain the process of civic hacking and how citizens can get involved.

Lesson One: It needs to solve a problem – Flu Shot App

The City’s health department distributes free flu shots every year to help keep Chicago healthy. This year the city heavily advertised on CTA to encourage residents to get a flu shot. However, it wasn’t always easy to find where to get a flu shot.

More civic hackers hard at work

Working with the city’s health department, Tom Kompare built the flu shot finder app. Once the app was built, it was adopted by the city.

Juan explains, “While the flu shot app won’t solve public health, it does solve a particular civic problem – and that’s good!”

Lesson Two: Discovering the bureaucracy – SecondCityZoning.org

As civic hackers start to work on these projects is that you discover the intricate of the way the city works. Secondcityzoning.org is an OpenCity website that lets you explore Chicago’s different zones. The site also educates people on what the zones actually mean.

Lesson Three: Spreading the word – Schoolcuts.org

Josh Kalov and Derek Eder discuss the schoolcuts.org app

The other big lesson is that once an app is built you need to get the word out. Jeanne partnered with Josh Kalov and the Open Data Institute to create a website that helps open up school data in a format easily understandable to parents. By helping to provide guidance to what parents needed, the end result was a site that helps parents and the community understand what’s happening with the school closing in Chicago.

Jean found the groups in Chicago that cared about the school closings and worked with them to help get the word out. Schoolcuts.org has now been featured in several press stories and is one of the most accessed civic apps coming out of Chicago.

LISC Chicago (49:00)

Suzanna Vasquez, Executive Director of LISC Chicago, spoke about their Smart Communities program. Smart Communities works to increase digital access and digital literacy in the Chicago neighborhoods of Auburn Grsham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Humbolt Park, and Pilsen. LISC works with local partners to help support local initiatives to close the digital divide. A good example is the work done by Teamwork Englewood. (Who is working to raise funds to increase its Englewood Codes class to 30 students.)

LISC is a semi-finalist for the Knight Foundation News Challenge for their proposal “OpenGov for the rest of us” that hopes to use the same model to help open gov and civic hacking projects in the neighborhoods.

The City of Philadelphia – BTOP Partners and Philly Tech Week (57:55)

OpenGov Hack Night was proud to have Linsey Keck and Ashley Del Bianco as guests at this week’s hack night. They were part of the BTOP conference that was occurring in Chicago this week.

Linsey and Ashley run the BTOP grants in Philadelphia. Philadelphia and Chicago have a lot of similarities in terms of their open data policies, their efforts to close the digital divide and both cities have civic hacking events on a regular basis.

At next weeks Philly Tech Week, the team is running several events aimed at getting people to think about digital access issues. This includes an event designed to get all members of the tech community to talk about how we bridge the gap between the tech world and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Big Data Week in Chicago (1:07)

Next week is going to be Big Data Week in Chicago. There will be a number of events in the Chicago all during the week with many of these events being streamed online. You can get more information about these events by visiting bigdatachicago.com/chicago.

Edit Your Neighborhood On OpenStreetMap

Christopher WhitakerApril 19, 2013

They’ll be two opportunities for residents to help improve OpenStreetMap. The first is an OpenStreetMap Mapathon designed to help new mappers learn OpenStreetMap.

OpenStreetMap is an open source map that anyone can edit. Users can add data to the map including information about their favorite restaurants, cultural venues, and more.

We took some time out to talk with Ian Dees to show how easy it is to edit your hood with OpenStreetMap. The video is a quick step-by-step walk-through of how to make edits to the map.

OpenStreetMap can be edited using a free tool called idEditor. The editor will automatically find your location when you sign in. At this point, you can search for a location in the address bar or just explore around the map.

For our example, I had noticed that one of my neighborhood restaurants wasn’t showing on the map.

Using the idEditor, Ian was able to show me how to quickly add information to the building.

If you’d like to help edit your neighborhood, then join us this weekend for the OpenStreetMap Map-a-thon.

The OpenStreetMap Map-a-thon is a national event designed to teach new mappers the tools to improve the OpenStreetMap in your area.

Chicago’s Map-a-thon will be April 20th and 21st at 1871 on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza from noon to 6pm. Food and drinks will be provided by the Smart Chicago Collaborative.

You can RSVP at on the Chicago OpenStreetMap meetup page.

OpenGov Hack Night: Majuro.js and Englewood Codes

Christopher WhitakerApril 11, 2013

This is a weekly feature that will highlight what’s happening at the Chicago OpenGov Hack Night. The Chicago OpenGov Hack Nights are weekly events where technologists and community members come together to work with open data and build tools that improve the civic experience. The events are held at 6:00 pm each Tuesday at 1871.

Majuros.js

Majuros is an app by Code for America alumni Nick Doiran. The app lets you create detailed, interactive maps with open building data. You can then download the maps for Google Earth or any other program that takes KML files.

A good example is the Historic Chicago map. You can use the Majuros.js tools to draw a blue square over the are you are interested in. Say, for example: The Loop

You can then choose to view the map in several different formats. For our example, I selected web map.

You can make your own map by using visiting the Majuros.js website. And this map isn’t just limited to Chicago – you can build maps in any city that’s made building data available. From Honolulu to Boston!

Englewood Codes

Englewood Codes is a Kickstarter project by Demond Drummer with Teamwork Englewood where teens will learn how to code their own websites using a Raspberry Pi computer.

Raspberry Pi is a small $35 computer that’s designed to teach programming.

Teamwork Englewood will work with students over 10 weeks to teach them the basics of Raspberry Pi, before moving on to HTML and CSS.

The students will then form teams and enter a competition to revamp local organization websites.

Now, the Teamwork Englewood has already met it’s Kickstarter goal of $5,000. But that’s no reason to slouch. This project that Demond and Team Englewood is doing is extremely important. (We are not kidding: Smart Chicago kicked in $1,000 to make sure this happens!)

Demond’s right. If Chicago is going to compete in the global economy, then we have to do more than attract talent – we have to grow our own talent. From everywhere

If Chicago is serious about civic innovation, we must support civic innovation in every Chicago neighborhood. A technological revolution in the way that government and citizens interact that fails to benefit the entire city would be a hollow victory.

The Kickstarter project has over a month remaining. The more money they can raise, the more kids they can enroll in the program. And it’s not just money they’ll need. We’ll need volunteers from the community to help teach HTML and CSS.

This is important work. Kick in some support if you can. (Note: Smart Chicago Collaborative is a $1,000 backer of Englewood Codes on Kickstarter).

Transit Night at the OpenGov Hack Night

Christopher WhitakerApril 5, 2013

At this week’s OpenGov Hack Night, we had presentations from Ed Zotti and Joe Iacobucci about transit and data in Chicago.

Joe Iacobucci is a Chicago transit enthusiast and gave a presentation on the link between public transit and economic development.

As an example, Iacobucci used a site called Mapnificent to show a locations access to transit by calculating how far a traveller could go by using public transit. Mapnificent uses transit data to calculate all the areas that can be reached by public transit in a given period of time.

For example, a rider that starts in the loop could go as far as Wilmette, Maywood, Homewood, or Calumet City in just 30 minutes. (Even without the Metra, a rider could still reach Evanston, Jefferson Park, or Englewood.) In comparison, a rider who starts in Cicero would only be able to reach as far as Greektown or Melrose Park in 30 minutes.

When you compare this information to real estate prices on sites like Zillow, you can see that the areas with greater transit options tend to have higher home values.

We also had a presentation from Ed Zotti, editor of The Straight Dope and assistant to the legendary Cecil Adams. Zotti ran through a recent history of Chicago Transit in terms of ridership capacity. Zotti has written extensively about transit in Chicago including a Chicago Reader feature on How to fix the El.

Resources for developers interested in transit issues.

Chicago has 43 sets transit data available to developers on the city’s data portal. This data includes everything from transit routes, bus ridership, to the annual boarding totals all the way from 1988. The CTA also has three APIs for developers to use in their own apps. These include bus tracker, train tracker, and a feed of all customer alerts.

The CTA even has instructions on how to build your own CTA Transit Info Display.

The next OpenGov Chicago Meetup:

The next OpenGov Chicago meetup will be this Thursday at the Chicago Community Trust. We’ve invited three speakers to give thoughtful critiques of the open government movement in Chicago. These speakers include:

Ramsin Canon, political editor at GapersBlock.com will provide perspective on the extent to which the movement benefits local communities.
Terry Pastika, Executive Director of the Citizen Advocacy Center will give a view of the current state of democracy in Illinois, with a focus on the Western and Far Western suburbs of Chicago.
Mike Stringer, Managing Partner at Datascope Analytics and organizer of the Data Science Chicago meetup group, will talk about whether we’re asking the questions most worth answering.

If you aren’t able to attend in person, the meeting will be live streamed on the Smart Chicago Collaborative blog.

Data Potluck: 7 Million Rows of Data

Christopher WhitakerApril 2, 2013

There were a lot of people at this week’s data potluck

Data Potluck is a monthly event occurring the last Tuesday of every month at 6:00pm inside 1871. Like the OpenGov Hack nights, these events focus on how open data and civic apps can help improve the citizen experience. However, these events have a more non-profit focus to them. Data Potluck was inspired by last year’s DataKind Data Drive which helped gather data for the Chicago area Red Cross. In order to keep the effort moving forward, Young-Jin Kim, Matt Gee and Nicholas Mader started the DataPotluck Meetup group.

DataPotluck’s other advantage? People bring food.

Rayid Ghani, Chief Scientist for Obama for America

At this month’s Data Potluck we had two presentations. The first was from Rayid Ghani, former Chief Scientist for the Obama for America 2012 Campaign. Rayid explained how the Obama for America campaign used the power of predictive analysis and social media to help win the election.

Rayid announced that the same model that made the Obama team so effective at their outreach efforts would be made available to non-profits.

Historical Traffic Congestion Data

The second presentation was by the City of Chicago’s Chief Analytics officer to announce the release of a seven million row dataset. Chicago has just released data on traffic congestion by segment.

To get an idea of just how big this data set is, a traffic segment is about a half mile. The city has 300 miles of road that the city keeps real-time traffic data for. The city refreshes the database that lives on the portal every ten minutes.

The city first released the real-time data in December, but civic developers wanted to take a look at historical data.

So, the city worked with Socrata to enable the city’s data portal to be able to handle such a massive volume of data. Now, civic developers can dig into all of the Chicago’s traffic data.

To help developers dig into the data, they’ve created a very well documented API.

This documentation includes code samples in multiple languages on how to access the data as well as definitions on all the different fields in the data set and the possible errors you could get.

Now that this data has been released, we’re excited to see what cool, useful, and interesting things that people will do with this data.

If you want to work with civic data:

For people who are interested in working with civic data, there are two opportunities that they should look into.

The first is the Chicago Data Science Fellowship. The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory are recruiting people with statistics, programming, and data skills to work with real world data to make an impact on social issues.

The second is that the City of Chicago is hiring a data scientist to help ensure that Chicago becomes the very best civic data team in the world. The City of Chicago is looking to hire a new data scientist to join their team. If you are interested, you should apply on the city’s website.