Civic Works

Chicago Cultural Center launches Textizen campaign with Smart Chicago

Christopher Whitaker

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs has launched a Textizen campaign to get feedback on their new Public Art Plan. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy.

Textizen is an SMS based survey tool that civic organizations can use to get resident feedback. Organizations can create a survey campaign and then place the survey options on posters, postcards, or on screens during live events. Organizations can then receive real time feedback as people text in their answers.

Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago Cultural Center

Smart Chicago Collaborative is a local service provider for Textizen under our CivicWorks Project. Smart Chicago will work with you to design a campaign, signage advertising your survey, and help manage the campaign.

There is no cost to organization for this service, but organizations will be responsible for their own printing.

You can get more information about our Textizen program here.

Damaged Vehicle Claim = Civic Engagement

Christopher Whitaker

Lots of people in my professional life talk about “civic engagement”. Everybody seems to want it. Fran Spielman reports in today’s Sun-Times that the City Clerk’s office had received over 3,100 damage claims due to potholes. That’s thousands of people engaging.

While we don’t always think of civic engagement as people filling out forms and claims, this is civic engagement at it’s core. Thousands of people going through a multi-step process to get reimbursed for a weaknesses of the civic infrastructure— and being paid back by the taxpayers— is about as engaged as one can be. Each year, the Chicago City Clerk‘s office processes thousands of claims for damaged vehicles.

potholes

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On the launch of Crime and Punishment in Chicago

Smart Chicago

Smart Chicago Collaborative is proud to launch our latest Civic Works Project: Crime and Punishment in Chicago. This project is a collaborative effort among Smart Chicago, FreeGeekChicago, and the Chicago Justice Project.

Chicago Police Department Memorial at Buckingham Fountain

Photo by Chris Smith / Flikr

The Crime and Punishment in Chicago project provides an index of data sources regarding the criminal justice system in Chicago. We aggregate sources of data, how this data is generated, how to get it, and what data is unavailable. This project is a key way we are using the Civic Works grant to use data journalism to uncover the value of data and cover the stories behind the data.

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