Month: October 2012

Smart Chicago + Local Developers + Tweets = Better Public Health

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The Smart Chicago Collaborative provided server space on our Amazon Web Service account so that a local developer to develop an algorithm to classify tweets in the service of public health. Here’s how Joe Olson of Tracklytics describes the work:

Tracklytics partnered with Smart Chicago and DePaul University to enter a the Now Trending: #Health in My Community contest sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the contest was to spur innovation in analyzing social media outlets to detect global health trends. Specifically, the contest requirements were to use Twitter to identify trending topics relating to disease, such as West Nile virus and Legionnaire’s disease.

Tracklytics designed and implemented the solution, DePaul helped with testing and algorithm validation, Smart Chicago funded the computer time.

We did not win the contest, but several innovations were developed. We now have the ability to collect over 1,000,000 disease-related tweets per day. A subset of these tweets are run through a machine learning algorithm, and can be filtered down to a much smaller set of tweets where someone is reporting having an instance of a disease, as well as their location. Current accuracy of this is near 85%. We’ve reduced the cost of classifying tweets down to .0000057 cents/tweet, storing them for analysis down to 0.000000235 cents/tweet/month, and archiving them down to 0.000000004 cents/tweet/month.

You can view the site at http://hhs.tracklytics.com

We are currently working on modifying this technology to track food poisoning cases in Chicago. Once legitimate food poisoning cases reported by individuals are identified by Twitter using the machine learning algorithm, we can send to the person reporting the case a tweet containing a URL directing them to a form to collect more specific information (do you suspect the incident occurred at a restaurant, was from tainted food, etc). This information can them be entered into the City’s 311 system via the Open311 interface, and directed to the City’s Health Department for further analysis.

Lots more to come from this work— stay tuned!

Smart Chicago Hosts Flu Shot App for Local Developer Using Civic Data

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Today the Mayor’s Office and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced the launch of a new interactive web map that pinpoints CDPH’s citywide flu shot clinics based on location and hours of operation. Here’s a snip from the press release:

The Smart Chicago Collaborative hosted project was led by the Tom Kompare, who volunteered his time to develop the app that makes it easy for Chicago residents to stay healthy this flu season by finding their nearest flu shot clinic to get vaccinated. Kompare lives in Rogers Park and also volunteers with Open Government Chicago(-land), a technology meetup group for Chicagoans interested in seeing governments function more efficiently and responsively.

“Helping make City data more accessible and understandable is my way of giving back to Chicago, a sort of e-volunteerism,” said Kompare.  “Chicago has made public a really impressive amount of data and it’s up to developers like us to make this data more useful for everyday Chicagoans.”

Smart Chicago is hosting this app on our Amazon Web Services account. If you are a developer working with civic data, you may be eligible for free space on this account. Go here for more info on this program.

If you’re interested in using civic data to make lives better in Chicago, you should join the Open Government Chicago(-land) meetup group!

City of Chicago -- Get A Flu Shot Map

City of Chicago — Get A Flu Shot Map

"Get a Flu Shot" Sign on the Door of 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts' Ward Office

“Get a Flu Shot” Sign on the Door of 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts’ Ward Office

A Good Idea, on the Side of a Bus: Get A Flu Shot

A Good Idea, on the Side of a Bus: Get A Flu Shot

Center for Neighborhood Technology Urban Sustainability Hackathon

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CNT Reinventing Chicago Hackathon Judging Rubrick

Recently I helped out in judging for the Urban Sustainability Hakathon hosted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). The event focused on a subset of the data available from the City of Chicago data portal under sustainable development, energy, transportation, water, buildings, parks/ open space/ food access, and climate.

It was a really great event. I haven’t been at a hackthon since the Knight-Mozilla-MIT “Story and Algorithm” Hack Day back in June, and it has been even longer since I’ve been to a local hackathon. CNT wrote a comprehensive blog post about the event. They have details on all six entrants, including the winner (Edifice) and the two runner-ups (Jitney Driver and Hidden Value in Abandoned Property).

Here’s some thoughts:

Community matters

CNT Hackathon: Hidden Value in Abandoned Buildings

The great value of this event is the community that results from people meeting and working together. A great example is the Hidden Value in Abandoned Property team of Audrey Henderson and Dan Fehrenbach. Derek Eder made a great tool for viewing reports of vacant and abandoned buildings, but Audrey had a great idea for this data that goes beyond just seeing the data on a map by pairing it with other data that shows its value. She met a great CNT developer in Dan and they executed on a beta of the idea. That kind of connection is worth everything in this world.

Policy is implicit in apps

CNT Hackathon: Jitney Driver

I was impressed by the team and the thinking behind Jitney Driver. Paula Robinson led us through a presentation about the social and economic benefits of jitney drivers. She referenced August Wilson’s play Jitney, play is set in a worn-down gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early autumn 1977. Since I actually lived in Pittsburgh in 1977, and well-remember the idea of jitney cabs.

She spoke of how shared rides lead to more connection among neighbors, how jitney driving could lead to local jobs and keeping money in the neighborhood, and how this type of service could fill an existing gap in transportation service. Some in the panel and audience talked about how this plays within the licensing requirements of the City, and even talked about whether we would be customers of such a service.

It was a refreshing example of people coming together to talk about how technology can affect a wide range of areas in society.

Civic Data is Big Business

The winner of the contest was Edifice, created by Cory Mollet and Juan-Pablo Velez. It is a great example of a product that pulls together a series of free things (four types of public data, Open Street Map, Tile Mill, and so on) in a way that creates a whole lot of value. It’s a good reminder that mining public data can lead to great businesses. I have high hopes for Edifice and the entire civic innovation industry here in Chicago.

Edifice Maps

Here’s a complete set of photos I took during the wrap-up of the hackathon. Congratulations to all participants– keep it up, and consider taking part in the Illinois Open Technology Challenge.

The Launch of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge

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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.

 

Home page – Learn

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Learn Read more »

Digital skills training has been an important part of the Chicago technology landscape for many years. A comprehensive strategy for digital excellence was laid out in the 2007 report, “The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence“.

Hundreds of professionals have labored in dozens of programs across the city, doing the daily work of teaching residents how to take part in the digital revolution to use the Internet, get jobs, and participate in civic life.

Connect Chicago has information on many different ways to gain digital skills:

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El entrenamiento en informática ha sido una parte importante del panorama tecnológico de Chicago durante muchos años. En el informe de 2007, “The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence” (La ciudad que se conecta: transformación de la sociedad y economía a través de la excelencia informática), se presentó una estrategia integral para la excelencia informática.

Cientos de profesionales han trabajado en una gran cantidad de programas en la ciudad, enseñando diariamente a los residentes cómo formar parte de la revolución informática para usar el Internet, conseguir trabajos y participar en la vida cívica

Connect Chicago cuenta con información sobre muchas diferentes maneras de recibir entrenamiento en informática:

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Szkolenia z umiejętności informatycznych od wielu lat stanowią ważny element krajobrazu technicznego Chicago. W roku 2007 naszkicowano wszechstronną strategię doskonalenia sprawności informatycznej, “Miasto w Sieci: (The City that NetWorks): Transformacja społeczna i gospodarcza dzięki cyber-umiejętnościom“.

Setki fachowców od dawna intensywnie pracują w ramach dziesiątków programów na terenie miasta, i codziennie wtajemniczają naszych mieszkańców w arkana udziału w rewolucji informatycznej, korzystania z Internetu, znajdowania pracy i szerszego udziału w życiu zbiorowości.

Connect Chicago służy informacją o rozmaitych metodach nabywania cyber-umiejętności:

学习 – 阅读详细信息

多年来，数字技能培训一直是芝加哥技术领域的一个重要部分。在 2007 年题为“网络城市：通过数字技术卓越进行社会和经济变革”(The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence) 报告中提出了一套旨在促进数字技术卓越的综合性策略。

有数百名专业人员在芝加哥市的数十个相关计划中辛勤耕耘。他们的日常工作就是辅导居民如何参与这场数字革命，以便使用互联网、找工作以及参与市民生活。

Connect Chicago 所拥有的大量信息能够告诉您获得数字技能的诸多不同方法：

  • 社区培训：遍布城市各地的社区技术中心提供数十个相关计划
  • 在线课程：注册数字技能培训，并按照自己适应的进度来学习
  • 在线培训图书馆：您是培训师？您可以随意浏览并下载各种课程，以便在您所在的场所使用
  • CyberNavigators：该长期计划在 45 个图书馆场所提供现场帮助
  • 数字技能动议：在 30 个场所提供密集的现场培训

Home page – About

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Connect Chicago is a loose network of more than 250 places in the city where internet and computer access, digital skills training, and online learning resources are available—for free.

The work of these people in libraries, colleges, community centers, workforce development centers, and public housing help create a vibrant culture of learning, making Chicago more globally competitive and an all-around better place to live and work.

Connect Chicago is here to help all Chicago residents get connected— no matter where you are in the city, on the skills continuum, or in this universe of access and training providers.

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Connect Chicago es una red descentralizada de más de 250 establecimientos en la ciudad en los que el acceso a Internet y a computadoras, el entrenamiento en informática y los recursos de aprendizaje por Internet se encuentran disponibles de forma gratuita.

El trabajo de estas personas en las bibliotecas, los colegios comunitarios, los centros comunitarios, los centros de desarrollo para el trabajador y las urbanizaciones ayuda a crear una cultura dinámica de aprendizaje, haciendo que Chicago sea más competitivo a nivel mundial y sobretodo un mejor lugar para vivir y trabajar.

Connect Chicago está aquí para ayudar a todos los residentes de Chicago a conectarse; sin importar en qué parte de la ciudad estés, en qué nivel estén tus habilidades o en dónde te encuentres en este universo de proveedores de acceso y entrenamiento.

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Connect Chicago to luźna sieć ponad 250 ośrodków na terenie miasta, świadczących dostęp do komputerów, szkoleń informatycznych, szlifowania cyber-umiejętności oraz sieciowych zasobów dydaktycznych—bez żadnych opłat.

Praca tych ludzi – w bibliotekach, uczelniach, ośrodkach osiedlowych, ośrodkach kształcenia zawodowego, sprzyja tworzeniu pulsującej kultury samokształceniowej, dzięki której Chicago zyskuje globalną konkurencyjność – i atrakcyjność jako miejsce pracy i osiedlenia.

Rolą Connect Chicago jest świadczenie pomocy wszystkim mieszkańcom miasta w zapewnianiu dostępu – bez względu na Twój rejon miasta, posiadane spektrum umiejętności, czy pozycję wśród zespołów zapewniających innym dostęp sieciowy i cyber-szkolenia.

关于我们 – 阅读详细信息

Connect Chicago 是一个松散的服务网络，由芝加哥市内超过 250 家提供互联网和电脑使用、数字技能培训以及在线学习资源的场所组成，且以上所有服务均为免费。

我们的工作人员在图书馆、大学、社区中心、劳动力发展中心以及公共住宅行业工作。在他们的努力下，芝加哥形成了一种生机勃勃的学习文化，使芝加哥更具整体竞争力，同时也变成了一个在各方面都更加适合生活和工作的地方。

Connect Chicago 致力于帮助所有芝加哥居民获得持续的技能服务，或者进入这个由众多网络接入和培训提供商组成的体系，不论您在这座城市的哪个地方。