Chicago: City of Big Data and National Day of Civic Hacking

For National Day of Civic Hacking, Chicago will play host to three separate events. The first is the ChicagoMigraHack, a hackathon focused on the problem of immigration. The second event […] More

Hacking Community Policing with Google

On Saturday, civic web developers, designers, and data gurus came together with the Chicago Police Department at Google’s Chicago headquarters to test out and find creative ways to use the […] More

Being Online Matters

According to a recent study, 32 percent of Chicago’s residents are not online. The main reasons are cost, skills, and interest. Unfortunately, this affects our residents’ ability to fully participate […] More

Hack for your Community, for the Environment

April 26-28 Mayor Emanuel and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) launched the Chicago Cleanweb Challenge, a year-long competition to improve sustainability and technology in Chicago. The Mayor is committed to making […] More

Big Data Week is Coming to Chicago!

Calling all hackers and environmental advocates: Big Data Week is coming to Chicago and cities around the world. Founded in 2011, the festival connects cities across the globe to one […] More
 

Chicago: City of Big Data and National Day of Civic Hacking

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For National Day of Civic Hacking, Chicago will play host to three separate events. The first is the ChicagoMigraHack, a hackathon focused on the problem of immigration. The second event will be a youth focused hackathon at the Adler Planetarium. And finally, there will be an assortment of different civic hacking activities at Hack for Chicago hosted at the entrepreneurial coworking space 1871. They’ll also be a Civic Hacking 101 class streamed nationally to help orient people who are new to civic hacking.

Hackers at Chicago Crime Hack @ Cibola

Crime Hackathon at Cibola in Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood, photo by Dan O’Neil

To say that Chicago does a lot of civic hacking events would be an understatement. For the last year, civic minded web developers, data scientists, designers, and community organizers have gathered at 1871 each Tuesday for the Chicago OpenGov Hack Night. Recently, the City hosted a hackathon at Google Chicago in order to find creative ways to use the new public safety ClearPath API. Part of the reason for all this activity is that the City of Chicago has released a ton of open data that helps fuel civic app development. (931 data sets and counting!)

OpenGovChicago February 2013: News, Data, and Gov

An OpenGov Chicago Meetup Group at the Chicago Community Trust, photo by Dan O’Neil

So, for National Day of Civic Hacking it only made sense to have multiple events. These events were helped to be put together by a variety of partners including the Smart Chicago Collaborative, Institute of Justice & Journalism, Adler Planetarium, Cibola, The MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Mikva Challenge, Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring, Hive Chicago, Free Spirit Media, Knight Lab, Open City Apps, and the City of Chicago.

Safer Communities Hackathon at Google Chicago

Cathy Deng and Patrick Brown give us a wave at the Safer Communities Crime Hack at Google Chicago

While hackathons are great for organizing around civic issues and getting together to solve problems using technology, there often isn’t enough time to actually build apps based on the ideas being generated. That’s why we’re encouraging participants to continue the ideas that start at National Day of Civic Hacking by attending the weekly OpenGov Hack Nights.

To find out more about the National Day of Civic Hacking in Chicago, you can check out details of each event here. To find out more about National Day of Civic Hacking events across the country, visit the Hack for Change website.

By Christopher Whitaker for the Smart Chicago Collaborative

Hacking Community Policing with Google

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ClearPathBlackandWhite

Photo by Brian Fitzpatrick

On Saturday, civic web developers, designers, and data gurus came together with the Chicago Police Department at Google’s Chicago headquarters to test out and find creative ways to use the new ClearPath API.

ClearPath is the Chicago Police Department’s community information portal. First launched in 2007, ClearPath gives residents information not only about crime in their area, but also information about which police beat they’re on and when their CAPS meeting is.

CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Program) is Chicago’s community policing program. At the center of this program are the CAPS meetings that occur in each police beat. At the CAPS meetings, the police department can hear about community concerns in the neighborhood and interact with local residents. With the new API, the Chicago Police Department wants to make it easier for residents to interact with theClearPath website and to report community concerns.

The hackathon produced a number of creative ways to use the API to make it easier to interact with CAPS and the ClearPath system.

CAPSure by OpenCity Apps

clearpathcapsure

Derek Eder and the OpenCityteam helped to test the API and got an early start on building an app using the API.

The app they launched is called CAPsure. CAPSure helps residents get information about their local CAPS meeting. You enter in your address and the app will tell you which police beat you are in, when your next CAPS meeting is, and where the meeting is located. The app can also add the meeting to your Outlook, Google, or iCal calendars.

The app uses the ClearPath API’s calendar and event data to find events. The app also uses the City of Chicago’s data sets to help find users police district and beat number.

CAPStagram – Hackathon Winner

clearpathcapstagram

Photo by Patrick Brown

The winner of the Hackathon was a team of Patrick Brown, Karl Statz, Donchaa Carroll, and Cathy Deng.

For this concept, the app attaches a picture to community concerns submitted by residents. Currently, the ClearPath API doesn’t allow you to include pictures when making a community concern report. This mobile app allows users to send their local CAPS district a picture of a concern such as an abandoned building or graffiti to help aid in the investigation.

CAPS by Text – Runner Up

The runner-up for the hackathon was the team of Alex Soble, Josh Kalov and Demond Drummer.

Their app prototype allows users to send a community concern to their local CAPS district by text so that residents without the internet could still take advantage of the new system.

CAPs Alerts – Third Place

In third place was an app prototype built by Kevin McMahon. This mobile app not only uses the ClearPath API to help report community concerns, but it will also alert users when crime is reported near them.

Other prototypes:

Other ideas for using the ClearPath API included:

MapThatTrap: An app that residents can use to report abandoned buildings to both 311 and to the ClearPath API

Green Light Program: A concept that would change the colors of Chicago’s Blue Light Cameras from blue to green as crime rates went down in the neighborhood.

Next Steps:

For groups wanting to continue to work on their apps or for people not at the hackathon wanting to get involved, there are some great resources out there to make that happen.

The first is the Chicago OpenGov Hacknight that happens every Tuesday at 6:00pm at 1871. The OpenGov Hack Nights are a great place to learn about what is happening with civic innovation in Chicago and work on civic app projects.

If you’re looking for a place to host your civic app, the Smart Chicago Collaborative provides free hosting to civic applications. Smart Chicago will also provide user testing for your app for free as well.

If civic developers have questions about the API, they can contact the developers directly by emailing API@ChicagoPolice.org

Making our communities safer is an ongoing challenge that will not be solved in a single weekend or by a single web application. To utilize the new API to the fullest extent will require partnerships between the CAPS office, civic technologists, and community groups. If you’re a CAPS group or neighborhood organization that would like to form partnerships with civic technologists, feel free to email cwhitaker@cct.org for more information.

By Christopher Whitaker for the  Smart Chicago Collaborative

Being Online Matters

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According to a recent study, 32 percent of Chicago’s residents are not online. The main reasons are cost, skills, and interest. Unfortunately, this affects our residents’ ability to fully participate with their communities and hampers their access to critical information and services. The bottom line: Being online matters.

To help address this, Mayor Emanuel announced that Chicago would serve as a pilot city in Connect2Compete’s national EveryoneOn campaign that aims to address cost as a barrier to broadband adoption. More than 1.1 million Chicagoans will now be eligible for new low-cost wireless Internet service. This new program builds on the success of the Comcast Internet Essentials initiative the Mayor announced in 2011.

And last week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released its Broadband Adoption Toolkit to help connect Americans to resources, education tools, and best practices to get people online, build digital skills, and increase their access to jobs, education, health care, and other vital services.

We’re excited that NTIA’s Toolkit highlights two Chicago projects as best practices. The first is the Local Initiative Support Corporation’s (LISC) Smart Communities broadband awareness campaign which promotes digital access for families, businesses and other institutions in five Chicago neighborhoods: Auburn Gresham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Humboldt Park, and Pilsen. The campaign showcases personal stories from individuals that live in these communities to illustrate the advantages of broadband access and digital skills.

The campaign works because Smart Communities uses an interactive approach from the beginning. LISC solicited input from local agencies, non-profits and community leaders to understand community needs and to design the campaign.  The ads featured real residents from the Smart Communities on buses and trains that ran for several months. The Smart Communities team also produced T-shirts, tote bags, buttons and other materials that were distributed to community residents at various events. There was a strong multimedia component, also featuring residents discussing their experiences.

This outreach, combined with training programs, led to more than 32,000 new households across the five neighborhoods obtaining broadband subscriptions. Overall increases in Internet use were 15 percent higher when compared to similar neighborhoods. You can read a study of the impact of the Smart Communities program here (PDF).

The NTIA Toolkit also highlights DePaul University’s Digital Youth Network program. The Digital Youth Network expanded an existing media literacy program to middle school students in several schools in each of the five Smart Communities. Students were offered media arts classes at school as well as optional after-school production “pods” to learn how to use digital tools to make music, write poetry and produce video.

Hack for your Community, for the Environment

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GoogleHackApril 26-28 Mayor Emanuel and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) launched the Chicago Cleanweb Challenge, a year-long competition to improve sustainability and technology in Chicago. The Mayor is committed to making Chicago the most sustainable city of the 21st century, and it makes sense to use our technology and open data to further this aim. The Chicago Cleanweb Challenge will begin this Friday with the Earth Data: Hackathon event taking place as part of Big Data Week.  There will be prizes for creating the best app, problem-solving solution or visualization.

May 11 We’re teaming up with Google to have our first-ever hackathon focused on safe communities in Chicago on May 11, 2013, from 10am–5pm. More details to follow, but developers will be able to work with a brand new community safety API and compete for the best idea. RSVP here.

Big Data Week is Coming to Chicago!

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Calling all hackers and environmental advocates:

Big Data Week is coming to Chicago and cities around the world. Founded in 2011, the festival connects cities across the globe to one another by hosting a variety of meetups, discussions, demonstrations, and hackathons throughout the week. Here in Chicago, we are constantly collecting massive amounts of data—from crime reports to traffic information to street light outage rates. Just in time for Earth Day, our focus for the festival will be environmental data. Don’t miss these two free events.

Earth Data:  A Sustainable Chicago 2015 Celebration

Celebrate our community’s accomplishments in making Chicago a greener city, and discuss the challenges that the city faces. Join the City of Chicago and our partners in a discussion to hear how sustainability and Big Data are driving Chicago’s efforts to tackle climate change, and learn about the ‘made in Chicago’ solutions that can be achieved when community members and the government work together. Guests are invited to network, provide feedback, and enjoy sustainable drinks following the discussion, which takes place April 22 at 6:00 PM!

RSVP at earthdatacelebration.eventrite.com or e-mail olivia.cohn@global-philanthropy.org by Friday, April 19.  The event is free.

Earth Data: Hackathon

On Earth Day, Mayor Emanuel will launch the Chicago Cleanweb challenge, which facilitates a series of competitions to improve sustainability through the use of advanced data analysis. Earth Data: Hackathon will be the first competition in the series. Prize winners will be chosen for creating the best app, problem-solving solution and visualization. Come out Friday, April 26 through Sunday, April 28

RSVP at earthdatahackathon@eventbrite.com

Learn more about Big Data Week, and the rest of the week’s events here: http://bigdataweek.com/chicago/

 

Teaching for Tomorrow’s Jobs

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This week, the Mayor spoke at the national 100Kin10 Summit in Chicago to highlight the importance of increasing access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education.

STEMLive

Chicago has prioritized investing in ensuring Chicago’s children get the quality education they need to excel in tomorrow’s economy. That’s why this January we announced that our education curriculum was due for a “hackademic” upgrade. The Mayor and City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) Chancellor Hyman announced the next phase of this initiative. Approximately 1,000 City Colleges of Chicago students will develop web design and coding skills through an expanded partnership with The Starter League, founded by Neal Sales-Griffin, who is also a member of the Mayor’s Tech Diversity Council. Training tomorrow’s workforce is key to the Mayor’s vision for the city.

This school year, five Early College STEM high schools opened, each with a partner company and partner City College. In December 2011, Mayor Emanuel launched College to Careers at the City Colleges of Chicago, a nationally-recognized initiative that develops current and innovative curriculum and builds real pathways to employment through partnerships with major companies in six in-demand sectors that are growing in the city and across the country. And in 2012, the Mayor announced an expanded partnership between City Colleges of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools to nearly triple the number of schools that offer dual credit opportunities for students to earn college credit while still in high school.

You may have seen this popular video, released by Code.org, featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and others talking about the importance of learning how to program.

The narrative is clear: STEM education and computer programming is becoming as essential as reading and writing for our students. Chicago is uniquely positioned to nurture STEM education and lead in a modern economy because of the sheer amount of development and entrepreneurial talent in the city—a community interested in making sure we all grow together.

Everyone On

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Today the Mayor announced alongside non-profit Connect 2 Compete that Chicago will serve as the first pilot city for EveryoneOn, a national campaign that aims to increase digital literacy and access to fast and cheap Internet—both essential to thrive in a modern economy and the jobs of tomorrow.

The initiative will connect more than 1.1 million Chicagoans with low-cost internet and bring vital connectivity to more residents in zip codes where the median income is $35,000 or less. Connect2Compete builds on the existing Comcast Internet Essentials initiative that Mayor Emanuel announced in 2011, which brought low-cost, high-speed Internet to more 11,000 families across Chicago.  This map of broadband usage in Chicago in 2011 demonstrates why it’s important to continue to find effective new ways to close the divide.

Broadband usage

“Digital skills are 21st century workforce skills, making digital literacy training and affordable access to high-speed Internet service game changers for children and adults,” said Mayor Emanuel. “From day one we have worked to increase internet connectivity and knowledge for our residents, especially in neighborhoods that have traditionally been underserved.”

Chicago is no rookie when it comes to addressing the digital divide. In addition to the success of Comcast’s Internet Essentials partnership, Chicago has leveraged federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funding and other resources to:

  • Establish free Wi-Fi at 28 public computer center sites and upgraded free Wi-Fi at 66 Chicago Public Library branches;
  • Provide over 180,000 hours of instructor-led technology training to 29,300 Chicagoans citywide;
  • Help at least 570 Chicagoans find jobs through 180,000 one-on-one CyberNavigator assistance sessions at the libraries;
  • Deliver technology training to over 1,000 small businesses;
  • Provide out-of-school digital media programming to 1,350 youth;
  • Establish the Connect Chicago network to bring together over 250 locations that offer free digital skills training throughout the City; and
  • Install over 1,400 computer stations at 170 public computer centers citywide, located in CHA facilities, CCC campuses, community centers, libraries and Veterans Resource Centers.

Chicago’s First Curated Kickstarter Page Supports Small Businesses

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From Tamale Spaceship, the best tamales in Chicago, to Global Garden’s Bee’s and Seeds, a refugee urban farm and community garden, World Business Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a new project that has communities funding small businesses working to build better communities. Seed Chicago, Chicago’s official curated Kickstarter page, highlights projects that create jobs and encourage economic growth at a neighborhood level.

“It is our principal mission to ensure that neighborhood has a bustling economy, cultural and educational anchors, and local jobs so that Chicago can continue to grow and prosper on the world’s stage.” said Mayor Emanuel.

Using Kickstarter, the project creators can engage potential investors to help their small business blossom. There are 11 diverse projects, featuring everything from a Garfield Park Fresh Food market to a training center in Englewood that would teach people the art of Hair Braiding with state certification. Over time, more community projects will be added to the page. You can apply to participate here.

seedchicago1

Here is a complete list of the 11 projects involved:

Visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/seedchicago for more information.

Launching FoodBorne Chicago

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foodblog1

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is excited to launch a new app called FoodBorne Chicago, which was developed in collaboration with the Smart Chicago Collaborative.

This simple tool allows residents to report a food poisoning incident through 311. You identify the restaurant, the date and time you attended, your symptoms, and press send. The information is sent directly to CDPH and, if warranted, an inspection team is sent to the restaurant in question and the City will let you know via email. You can also track your claim on Service Tracker.

The app will also regularly scan related tweets for the Smart Chicago Collaborative team’s review. The team will @reply back in order to send people to the app—all part of our efforts to make connecting with city services more efficient and as easy as possible.

Foodblog

Why foodborne illness? It is a public health issue, and unreported cases have a potential impact on our communities. CDPH receives roughly 5800 complaints per year, leading to 174 restaurant investigations for suspected food poisoning. However, as many as 45% of foodborne illness cases go unreported, largely because residents may be unaware that they can file a complaint, much less how to file a complaint. Now you can file, track, and follow your claim thanks to this innovative new tool.

Release All the Data

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Last December, we released current traffic congestion estimates and received a tremendous amount of feedback along the lines of, “Sweet! But can we have more data?”

We released almost 9 million new rows of data across two new datasets: The historical archive is available for each region and segment of Chicago’s streets. Each archive displays the estimated speed of traffic on Chicago’s roads based on the bus traffic around the city. Historical traffic data by region will be available from March 2007 and segment data—which reflects much smaller portions of roads—is available from August 2011. The archives will be regularly updated for a complete history. The current traffic tracker dataset will remain in its current location and be refreshed every 10 minutes.

The historical traffic tracker data is now the largest dataset on the portal and was launched with Socrata’s API Foundry. The API is faster and allows users to interact with data using a SQL-style query language. This implementation helps guarantee users can quickly browse millions of rows of data for app-development and analysis. Here’s documentation on the segment data.

all of the data