Events

Join Maptime Chicago & ADA 25 this Friday!

Smart Chicago

ADA25logoPlease join us on May 22nd to discuss opportunities to improve public and open accessibility data in our community.

In particular, we would like to identify ways in which OpenStreetMap, the free, open, and community-built map of the world, can better capture characteristics of the built environment that impact how people with disabilities move throughout the city.

This is being done in partnership with ADA25 Chicago. ADA 25 Chicago will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2015 and leverage this milestone to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities—often considered the last frontier of civil rights. The Chicago Community Trust is the lead funder of this initiative.

Maptime Chicago is the local chapter of Maptime – whose mission is to open the doors of cartographic possibility to anyone interested by creating a time and space for collaborative learning, exploration, and map creation using mapping tools and technologies.

Maptime Chicago and Smart Chicago are working to both improve the data in OpenStreetMap and empower community members to contribute to and benefit from the map. We need your insight and feedback to ensure this work reaches the right members of the community and is primed to create lasting impact. We look forward to meeting with you.

The outcomes of this meeting will help Maptime Chicago and Smart Chicago plan a future Maptime event centered around adding and maintaining accessibility data in OpenStreetMap.

You can register for the event here!

Meeting Details

  • When: Friday, May 22nd, 12-1:30pm. Lunch will be provided.
  • Where: Chicago Community Trust (map) – 225 North Michigan Avenue, #2200. Hosted by Smart Chicago.
  • Contact: or [email protected].

“Organize!”— Tech Training for New Civic Tech Leaders on National Day of Civic Hacking

Smart Chicago

logoOne of our three main areas of focus at Smart Chicago is digital skills. In the past three years, we’ve learned a lot of things from our experience running events, building projects, conducting user testing, and writing extensively about civic innovation.

As part of our work around National Day of Civic Hacking, this year we’re going to be focusing our efforts around teaching these digital skills both locally and nationally. As usual, this effort will be led by Christopher Whitaker.

Christopher has written a number of tutorials and guides to help volunteer civic technology groups for the national Hack for Change website.

Here in Chicago, he will run a training camp at Blue1647 for new civic technology leaders centered around the theme of community organizing. (Register here!)  On June 6th,  we’ll be bringing in experts around the city to help train new civic tech leaders on the tools and techniques used to leverage the power of technology to help our neighborhoods. The event is specially set up for people new to civic technology regardless of their technology proficiency. This is a learning event— so bring your questions!

This event will be just one of many National Day of Civic Hacking events happening in Chicago including hackathons happening at the Adler Planetarium, Center for Neighborhood Technologies, the Chicago Public Library’s Maker Lab, and OpenGov Hack Night. We’ll be blogging about these events and more as we get closer to June 6th.

You can register for our event here.

Still time to register for UCP’s Innovation Lab Designathon!

Christopher Whitaker

Trans_LogoThere’s still time left to register for United Cerebral Palsy’s Innovation Lab.

Smart Chicago will be co-hosting an event where we hope to bring together designers, makers, manufacturers and assistive product aficionados among others at Innovation Lab for a competitive, collaborative and undeniably unique experience!
Hear from leading makers and hackers and people with and without disabilities about the principles of Universal Design actually prototype new products that are more accessible, attractive and easier to use for people with all levels of ability.
This intense event will focus on accessibility and usability in product design and rapid prototyping with lightning talks from notable speakers, coaching and mentoring from the experts, teamwork and product demonstrations and finally, prizes for the top ideas!

You can register for the event here!

Speakers announced for this weekend’s Civic Design Camp at Smart Chicago

Smart Chicago

rvprofileSmart Chicago and Code for America are pleased to announce our first two speakers for Civic Design Camp. Civic Design Camp is an annual event designed to bring together government employees, nonprofit partners and professional designers.  This year’s event is being held in Chicago on April 25th at the offices of kCura.

Our first speaker will be Raphy Villas from 18F’s Chicago office.

Raphy Villas began his public service as a Presidential Innovation Fellow working on MyUSA, a platform for accessing government services. He is now a product manager and co-founding member of 18F. Raphy lives in Chicago with his wife and two kids.

Villas will speak about the work of 18F with examples of how their using design thinking to transform government.

Our second speaker is Sonja Marziano, Project Coordinator at Smart Chicago Collaborative.

CCT Headshots-380-editedIn this position, Sonja manages projects including the Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup), the Chicago Early Learning Portal, Expunge.io “Plus,” and the Chicago School of Data. Before Smart Chicago, she worked in customer service and community programs at the Chicago Children’s Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sonja has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from Allegheny College.

Sonja will speak about the methods and processes of the CUTGroup, and how CUTGroup is a new model for UX testing, digital skills development, and community engagement in civic tech.

You can register for Civic Design Camp right here on our SplashThat Page!

Join the American Red Cross and the OpenStreetMap HOT team this weekend

Christopher Whitaker

redcross-logoThe Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT Team) is having a dual-mapathon this Saturday, March 28th. It will be hosted at the Red Cross offices of San Diego and Chicago, starting at 11:30AM CST 9:30m PST.

This is going to be one of the first mapathons organized by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and the Red Cross Regions of San Diego and Chicago. This event will introduce you to OpenStreetMap, the free map of the world, and the Missing Maps project, a collaboration between international humanitarian organizations to map the world’s poorest and most vulnerable urban areas.

Attendees will learn how to use satellite images to create maps of anywhere in the world and help save lives! For more information and to RSVP, please contact: Chicago: Jim McGowan at 312-848-6726 or [email protected] San Diego: Laura Horner at [email protected] or Cristiano Giovando at [email protected]

You can get more information about the event here.