Array of Things Civic Engagement

Array of Things Civic Engagement is a series of community meetings to discuss the Array of Things project and introduce concepts around how the Internet of Things can benefit communities.

Our partners for this project is the University of Chicago and their Urban Center for Computation and Data (Urban CCD), a research initiative of the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. Urban CCD runs Array of Things. Here's how they describe the project:

“The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes that will be installed around Chicago to collect real-time data on the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. AoT will essentially serve as a “fitness tracker” for the city, measuring factors that impact livability in Chicago such as climate, air quality and noise.”

At Smart Chicago, we seek to help build a smart city that works for everyone — a city where the technical infrastructure, data, tech tools, and tech training that are shaped by residents and serve them.

Throughout 2016, Smart Chicago will hold a series of neighborhood events on the Array of Things project. These meetings will be very much inspired by other direct engagement models like the Civic User Testing Group.

We'll recruit a community of residents and communicate regularly. Instead of a CUTGroup “test,” however, it will be an interactive community meeting with educational components and built-in feedback loops.

Our goals are as follows:

• Educate Chicagoans about the Array of Things project, process, the potential of the research, and the sensors’ capacities
• Inform future generations of the Array of Things sensors
• Understand what the people want out of the Internet of Things & these neighborhood data
• Collect resident feedback on privacy and governance policies for Array of Things

As usual, we are going to document everything. Using our documenter program, we will record and share notes, pictures, video. All of this work will be done in the open.

Smart Chicago Program Analyst Denise Linn is running this program. Stay tuned for more information on dates and locations for convenings. This engagement is in alignment with the rest of her work here including The Chicago School of Data, our interaction in the National Neighborhood Indicator Partnership.

To learn more about Array of Things, visit their GitHub page and see their FAQs.