Staff

Kyla Williams-Legislative Fellow (India)

Kyla Williams

I have been selected by the U.S. Department of State traveling to India for 14 days, as part of the Legislative Fellows exchange program. The Legislative Fellows program is a two-way exchange, sponsored by the US Department of State Bureau of Citizen Exchanges, and managed by World Learning, meant to connect public policy professionals, in this case, from South Central Asia, with American counterparts. It is part of the public diplomacy effort of the U.S. Government and also serves the purpose of increasing the level of cooperation between our countries in a variety of fields.

During 2014, over 40 participants from the South Central Asia region came to the United States. Smart Chicago hosted one, Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu from Hyderabad, India. The opportunity came to us through World Chicago, via their participation in the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Professional Fellows Program.

During Rakesh’s three week in-home stay, he learned about some of Chicago’s civic technology work, of which Smart Chicago is at the center of, and met with other important members of the ecosystem. Rakesh and I worked on an action plan with the objective to influence open data policy and practice in India and make data available to the public. From that work, Factly, was released on Facebook as a first step to make the citizens of India more data literate.

I am one of seven Fellows from across the United States (California, Georgia, Ohio and Louisiana). We will spend our time in India visiting Delhi, Dehradun and Bangalore-Silicon Valley of India interacting with dignitaries, economic development and social enterprise stakeholders, as well as Fellowship Alumni. I specifically will be presenting 1-30-15 on the topic, “Framework for social enterprise and using business skills for public causes”. Smart Chicago through our guiding principles (Technology, Open, Everyone, and Chicago) as well as our three focus areas (Access, Skills and Data) have much to lend to this discussion.

Follow-up regarding my experience and learning opportunities are forth coming…

Stay Tuned!

Demond Drummer joins Smart Chicago as Managing Director of the Smart Chicago Challenge

Smart Chicago

9655068657_916e949772_zToday Demond Drummer joins the Smart Chicago Collaborative as the Managing Director of the Smart Chicago Challenge, a plan to make Chicago the most dynamic digital city in the world.

Demond comes to us from Teamwork Englewood, where he has been a Tech Organizer. As part of his work there in the Smart Communities program, led by our partner LISC Chicago, he led a community engagement campaign that drove a 10% increase in home broadband adoption.

He also created Englewood Codes, a 10-week summer project where youth learn how to design, build and maintain their own multimedia websites. He originated LargeLots.org, a web app to promote the City’s Residential Large Lot Pilot Program in Greater Englewood. His work led to a ten-­fold increase in city-­owned residential lots transferred to private owners and to an expansion of the program to East Garfield Park.

The Smart Chicago Challenge is a new Smart Chicago program guided by a unique collaboration of dynamic partners: LISC Chicago, Chicago Public Library, the City of Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), MacArthur Foundation, World Business Chicago, The Chicago Community Trust, and Smart Chicago itself.

As Managing Director, Demond has primary responsibility for managing and facilitating the day-to-day activities of the Challenge and is accountable to the Challenge Steering Committee. I’m happy to serve as a member of that committee, along with Brian Bannon, Commissioner of the Library, Brenna Berman, Commissioner and CIO of DoIT, and Susana Vasquez, Executive Director of LISC Chicago.

Demond is just the fourth employee of Smart Chicago, joining Operations Director Kyla Williams, who has fiscal and project responsibilities across all our work, and Project Coordinator Sonja Marziano.

Please join me in welcoming Demond Drummer.