Governor Pat Quinn has declared April 3rd to be Illinois Innovation Day. Christopher Whitaker, consultant to Smart Chicago, will be representing us in Springfield tomorrow. Here’s a look at the work that Smart Chicago Collaborative has done at the state level.
The Smart Chicago Collaborative, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, the State of Illinois and the City of Rockford are pleased to announce the winners of the Illinois OpenTech Challenge.
The Illinois OpenTech Challenge for Rockford consisted of three challenges.
Patrick Zuroske, Capital Program Manager for the City of Rockford explains the first challenge
Challenge One: Create an app that will alert Rockford residents of road and lane closures.
Rockford is undergoing several improvements to local infrastructure. As a result of these projects, roads and lanes have to close in order to complete construction inconveniencing residents trying to drive through Rockford. The City of Rockford is interested in an app that would alert residents to road closures. Currently, the city gets hundreds of phone calls asking about this issue.
WINNER: Barrel Dodger! An app that sends alerts to residents when the city indicates a lane or road has been closed.
Jen Hall talking about the “Moving the Needle” Campaign
Challenge Two: Create an app that allows users to view, post and promote community service projects in Rockford. This challenge was issued by Rockford EDEEN as part of their moving the needle campaign.
WINNER: rockford.What-When-Where.org! An app that lets community members post events and where residents can share what community event people are going to.
Rockford Director of IT Glenn Trommels demoing Rockford’s data portal
Challenge Three: Build an app that solves a civic problem or educates the public using government data. This challenge was a ‘wild card’ challenge that gave civic innovators wide latitude in coming up with creative ways to use data to help solve civic problems in Rockford.
WINNER: RaiseUp Rockford! An app that lets make service requests to the City of Rockford.
More details to come!
The first of four community kickoff meetings for the Illinois Open Technology Challenge is set for next Tuesday, November 27, at Governor’s State University. If you are interested in helping the municipalities of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association to use data to make lives better in Southland, you should sign up for the Meetup event here. Here’s the agenda:
6 – 6:15 Introductions
We’ll go around the room, introduce ourselves, and say a brief statement about what you’re interested in achieving. Examples: “I have an idea for a app, and I need to meet a developer”, “I’m an expert at land use and I’m interested in talking with community members”, “I’m a government official and I’m looking to connect with developers”—things like that.
6:15 – 6:30 Kickoff
We’ll hear from ILOpenTech Challenge team about the current state of the contest and review the requirements. We’ll talk about timelines, judging, and so on. Our role is to manage the Challenge and help guide participants as they form teams and brainstorm ideas, so we want to hear from you.
6:30 – 7 Ideas + Matching
This is the time for anyone with an idea to present it to the group in a more complete fashion and make a pitch for people to join them. We will have lots of materials that will help you express yourselves—easels, large postits, markers, etc. You’ll want to talk about what data you’d like to use and what community issues you want to solve. One way to get an early jump on this is to use post to the discussion on the Meetup page: http://www.meetup.com/Illinois-Open-Technology/events/89383552/. We also ask you two questions when signing up for the Meetup—the more thinking you do before the event, the more you will get out of it
– Do you have an idea for an app that you’d like to submit? Let us know!
– Do you have a community issue you’d like to address through data and technology? If so, can you describe?
7 – 8 Team Work
Teams will split off into groups and start planning their work. Since this is just the planning stage, feel free to walk around and hear from lots of people and teams.
8 – 8:30 Reports
We’ll regroup and hear from each of the groups and plan next steps.
This is all about the south suburbs of Chicago. Take a look at the data available at www.data.illinois.gov, www.metrochicagodata.org, and www.ssatlas.org to start thinking of ideas.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced the Illinois Open Technology Challenge last week. Here’s an excerpt:
The State of Illinois Open Data site, Data.Illinois.Gov, is a searchable clearinghouse of information from state agencies that is helping inform residents about the operation of state government and encouraging the creative use of state information, including the development of applications for mobile devices that can be built around the data. This site, which the governor launched in June 2011, now contains more than 6,500 data sets.
Sponsors of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge include The Chicago Community Trust, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Google, and the Motorola Mobility Foundation. Additional support is being provided by Comcast. Administrative support for the project is provided by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition and Smart Chicago Collaborative.
This is an important project for Smart Chicago, and it is deeply embedded into our entire program around data. Smart Chicago is housed at the The Chicago Community Trust, which has partnered with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to create the Civic Innovation in Chicago project, which brings together government, developers, journalists, and nonprofits to better understand data and use it to solve community problems.
The Trust and Knight has jointly pledged $50,000 to support prizes for the Illinois Open Technology Challenge because it brings governments, developers and communities together in a common mission to use public data and create digital tools that will serve today’s civic needs and promote economic development.
If you’re interested in participating, join our list and let us know.
