News & Events

Join Smart Chicago for On the Table!

Daniel X. O'Neil

Smart Chicago Collaborative will be hosting a lunch as part of On the Table on Monday, May 12, 2014 from 12:00 – 2:00 PM CST at 1871. Our founding partner, The Chicago Community Trust is marking its 99th birthday with this region-wide event happening on May 12 to unite us in a community discussion about our future and the issues important to you.

We would like to meet new people who are interested in using technology to make lives better in Chicago. Everyone means everyone. If you have never been to 1871 and are interested in technology helping people, please fill out this form to join Smart Chicago for lunch on this important day! We only have a few spots so we can keep this group small and have an in-depth conversation.

If you are interested in learning more about participating in other ways, visit On the Table.

Smart Chicago and the National Day of Civic Hacking

Daniel X. O'Neil

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is proud to be a contributing partner to the National Day of Civic Hacking effort. We’ve been providing content to the national  website, starting with the Civic Hacking 101 video put together by Smart Chicago consultant and Chicago Code for America Brigade Captain Christopher Whitaker. Our goal is to help spread the lessons we’ve learned in Chicago to the rest of the country.

National Day of Civic Hacking at 1871

Additionally, we’ll be hosting a hackathon May 31st – June 1st at the offices of kCura in the Chicago Loop in partnership with Code for America and Random Hacks of Kindness. Each day will be broken down into two sections.

During the first session, we’ll hear from people on the front line of civic work as they talk about their day to day challenges in the fields of education, housing, hunger, disaster response, public safety , and child protective services. In the afternoon, we’ll break out into group and prototype apps that may help address these challenges.

You can register for the event here.

Hack Night Live: The Chicago Tribune Elections Website

Christopher Whitaker

At tonight’s OpenGovHackNight – David Eads returns to the hack night to talk about his work on the Chicago Tribune Elections Website. He’ll go over their use of the new Reuters election data service and how they integrated the content into print. You can follow along with David with his slide deck here.

Our coverage begins at 6:15pm Chicago-time.

Dan O’Neil on the Knight Foundation OpenGov Panel

Christopher Whitaker

This morning Smart Chicago Executive Director Dan O’Neil participated in the OpenGov Panel at the Knight Foundation Media Learning Seminar along with the Waldo Jaquith, U.S. Open Data Institute; and the Honorable Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor of Gary, Indiana.

Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen

Alberto Ibarguen, President & CEO of the Knight Foundation, gives opening remarks to attendees. Image courtesy Knight Foundation

If you missed the panel, the Knight Foundation has the video below:

Watch live streaming video from knightfoundation at livestream.com

STEM Education: Prosser Advanced Technology Group

Christopher Whitaker

With the return of school, there’s also the return of an innovative program at Prosser Career Academy: The Advanced Technology Group.

The ATG started in 2007 to give students hands on experience with computers and information technology. At first, the program was simply fixing printers – but now the program has grown to include programming, robotics, sound equipment, and computer networking.

Continue reading →

Register Now for the MobileCitizen Giveaway!

Laura

Connect Chicago and the Smart Chicago Collaborative are excited to announce a new partnership with MobileCitizen, an innovative organization that provides low-cost internet service to schools and nonprofits around the country.

Organizations and schools can take advantage of MobileCitizen’s super fast mobile internet for only $120/year per account, plus the cost of the equipment that works best for them: a mobile hotspot, USB modem or desk modem. Organizations can empower staff out in the field, help students do homework during long commutes or extend low-cost 4G access to clients at home.

Though available at a low price to all nonprofits, Connect Chicago partner locations have the chance to win a year of free MobileCitizen service. The Smart Chicago Collaborative and MobileCitizen are giving away a mobile hotspot device and year of high-speed internet service to three public computing centers that are part of the Connect Chicago network.

Continue reading →